Experience the American dream with today’s Patriots of the Past interview. I’m your host, John Gillespie.
It’s April 11, 1767. I’m with wise old Benjamin Franklin who is a visionary of American liberty.
JG: “Mr. Franklin, you’ve helped secure the repeal of the oppressive Stamp Act. Is the worst over with Mother England?”
BF: “John, this is the beginning of the end of our marriage and the beginning of our struggle to be free. America, favored by nature, must become a great country and every act of oppression will hasten our resolve. For the seeds of liberty are universally sown and nothing can eradicate them.”
Nothing did eradicate the seeds of liberty as they grew through the blood, sweat, and tears of the American dream.
Benjamin Franklin wrote copious amounts of notes, which were highly critical of the Stamp Act, in the margins of a pamphlet compiled by the first Baron Lyttleton, a statesman who was in favor of the Stamp Act. The pamphlet is now on display in the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building in New York.
John and Jan Gillespie are the founders of the Rawhide Boys’ Ranch; they have fostered 351 teenagers and wrote the book Our 351 Sons; they have also assisted numerous churches in developing youth programs and expanding their total church ministries. After running for U.S. Senate, John founded 1776 American Dream, which exists to demonstrate the vision of our founding fathers and help our generation of youth passionately embrace those values.
