Experience the American dream with today’s Patriots of the Past interview. I’m your host, John Gillespie.
It’s July 12, 1778. I’m in Paris with eleven-year-old John Quincy Adams.
JG: “John Quincy, why are you here in France while America is fighting for independence from England?”
JQA: “Mr. Gillespie, my father, John Adams, was asked by Congress to leave America to see if the French would help our cause. He took me with him, but my mother, my sister, and my brothers had to stay home. We miss them all dearly, but for freedom we will sacrifice.”
Read one of the many letters exchanged between John Quincy Adams and his mother, Abigail Adams, while in France with his father.
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.
