By Jack Wyman

It was likely the end of a long and frustrating day.

Nightfall hastened.

He’d complained to his wife about the lack of news and of progress.

“I am wearied out,” he wrote her. “Indeed, I feel not a little out of humor.”

How he longed to be with “my wife and children upon my little farm.” Instead, he labored “day after day, and month after month, in a conclave, where neither taste, nor fancy, nor reason, nor passion, nor appetite can be gratified.”

He paused and thought of the sacrifice many had made—and were making, and would yet make.

It was April 26, 1777.

John Adams dipped his quill in the ink and carefully wrote the conclusion of his letter to “my dearest friend” Abigail.

“Posterity! You will never know how much it cost the present generation, to preserve your Freedom! I hope you will make good use of it. If you do not, I shall repent in Heaven, that I ever took half the pains to preserve it.”

Preserving freedom. Advancing freedom. There is no greater challenge to the American nation; or greater duty for each of its citizens. Adams may have been right. You and I may never fully know, understand, nor appreciate “how much it cost” that founding generation of brave patriots to preserve the freedom we so easily take for granted today.

We must strive to know. We must study to understand better. We must cherish the American past if we are to appreciate more fully what it means to be an American. History is the greatest tutorial for citizenship and leadership. When asked what advice he’d give to a young person wanting to someday be president, Harry Truman didn’t hesitate. “I’d tell him to read history.”

As American students prepared to end their summer vacation and return to the classroom, David McCullough died at the age of 89. He was one of the greatest historians this country will ever know. Noble, honest, fair, balanced, and thoughtful, McCullough rose with an inbred grace above the poisonous divisions of our time to teach us why we must understand and love its history if we are to better understand and love America.

David McCullough was impressive in every way imaginable. He was a wise observer, a trenchant and scholarly interpreter; an elegant writer, and a mesmerizing narrator. He spoke with authority and dignity, tempered by a grandfatherly kindness and gentle manner. He was an old-school gentleman.

His calm voice and regal bearing made you think he had just returned from an intimate conversation with Washington, Jefferson, and Madison. He wrote and spoke of historic figures as if they were his friends and neighbors.

McCullough was a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, writing majestic biographies of Harry Truman and John Adams. His 1776 is a riveting story of the American struggle for independence.

He observed, “No harm’s done to history by making it something someone would want to read.” He did.

We must teach, nurture, and encourage history, McCullough said, “because it’s an antidote to the hubris of the present.”

Too often we’ve scorned or ignored the past, choosing instead to embrace the mentality of a 1959 ad for Dodge automobiles:

“The greatest of everything new—the newest of everything great!’

Civic illiteracy is a national disgrace—and a national crisis. History and government have been politicized in the classroom, to the detriment of true learning. Young Americans are frequently subjected to ideology and prejudice from across the political spectrum. They’re taught that America is either evil—or perfect.

“It’s not what we don’t know that gets us into trouble,” said Mark Twain. “It’s what we know for sure that just ain’t so.”

We must teach the unvarnished truth about America to our children—its achievements and its failures; its glory and its scandals; its greatness and its injustice. Free of ideological bias. Teachers committed to this ideal are to be commended and encouraged.

Ignorance is the great enemy of freedom. Thomas Jefferson warned that a nation cannot expect to remain both ignorant and free. This “never was and never will be.”

God spoke through the prophet Hosea, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge” (Hosea 4:6). We tend to chuckle and shake our heads when young people on TV can’t identify simple things of American history or current events. But such a cavalier dismissal of civic knowledge is no laughing matter—it’s a national tragedy.

God instructed the people of Israel to be diligent in handing down the virtues and truths of their faith to their children. “Make them known to your children and your children’s children” (Deuteronomy 4:9). To this day, the Jewish people solemnly observe Passover, to remember their liberation from Egyptian slavery. In the American Liberty Bell are carved these words from the Jewish law:

"Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof” (Leviticus 25:10). Liberty can be preserved and advanced only when knowledge is prized and cultivated.

I’m honored to work for Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge. Started by General Dwight D. Eisenhower and American business leaders like E.F. Hutton in 1949, Freedoms Foundation seeks to reach both students and teachers with the truth of our nation’s past and the promise of its future.

We desire that young Americans discover and apply to their own lives the immutable values of our nation's founding. Through our immersive, interactive, and exciting programs, conducted at Valley Forge, the cradle of American democracy, we see students inspired, teachers renewed and lives transformed. This nation owes a great debt of gratitude to the fearless men and women who created our American republic. We also have a moral obligation to prepare those young Americans who will one day take up the torch of liberty and lead the land we love.

We must teach them the cost of preserving freedom. At Freedoms Foundation young people learn what it means to be a responsible and engaged American citizen.

This work is needed today more than ever. The future of America depends on it.

Of the war for independence, John Adams wrote his wife Abigail, “The events of war are uncertain. We cannot ensure success, but we can deserve it.”

To order Jack Wyman’s book, “Everything Else: Stories of Life, Faith and Our World”, go to amazon.com, Christian Book Distributors or barnesandnoble.com. It is also available on Kindle and eBooks.

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