Experience the American dream with today’s Patriots of the Past interview. I’m your host, John Gillespie.
It’s July 5, 1776. I’m in Braintree, Maine, with Nabby Adams, the ten-year-old daughter of John Adams, our second president of the United States.
JG: “Hello, Nabby! Your father was the main voice behind the Declaration of Independence. Are you afraid for your father’s safety?”
NA: “Oh, yes, Mr. Gillespie. The king doesn’t like my father, but my father doesn’t like the king’s unjust laws – he takes our liberties and we must stop that.”
Stop it we did as the Adams family and many Americans fought for freedom.
In a letter Abigail Adams wrote in response to her husband, John Adams, on July 14, 1776, she wrote, “… tho your letters never fail to give me pleasure, be the subject what it will, yet it was greatly heightened by the prospect of the future happiness and glory of our country; nor am I a little gratified when I reflect that a person so nearly connected with me has had the honour of being a principal actor in laying a foundation for its future greatness. May the foundation of our new constitution be justice, truth, and righteousness. Like the wise man’s house, may it be founded upon those rocks and then neither storms or tempests will overthrow it.”
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.
