Our founders signed their death warrant



While it’s easy to get sucked into the festivities of backyard BBQs and dazzling firework displays on July 4, it’s important to remember what we’re celebrating: Our hard-won independence from Great Britain and the establishment of our great nation founded on freedom.

And there’s no better way to do that than revisiting the timeless principles outlined in the document that defined America’s identity and declared her sovereignty. On this episode of “LevinTV,” Mark Levin unpacks key phrases from the Declaration of Independence to remind us who we are as American citizens.

  

“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands, which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel to the separation,” he reads.

“Why do they keep talking about the Laws of Nature and Nature's God? Because these were men of faith,” he says, noting that even Jefferson and Franklin, who were “deists,” still “embraced Judeo-Christian values” as well as the philosophies of John Locke, who declared that “your right to life, your right to be free doesn't come from any government” or “from any man” but “from God Almighty.”

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”

“In other words, your natural rights, your unalienable rights belong to you, no matter what — even if you live in a tyranny because they're God-given,” Levin explains.

“That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among men, that whenever any form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness,” he continues reading.

Many today have forgotten that this “is the purpose of government – to secure your unalienable rights, to provide order and law so you can exercise your free will and so your voluntary participation in the civil society increases the benefit of the whole community,” Levin says. And while “we don’t rebel at the drop of a hat” – as “prudence indeed will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes” – we will never “acquiesce to tyranny.”

Levin reminds that, originally, there was a clause in the Declaration of Independence condemning slavery, but it was removed to maintain unity among the colonies, particularly to avoid alienating Southern states where slavery was entrenched, as the revolution required a united front against Britain.

When the founders signed the Declaration of Independence, they knew the risk. “All signed their death warrant because the British wanted to collect every one of them up and execute them,” says Levin, but they signed anyway, “[putting] their lives on the line” to make the America we love today a possibility.

“This is what Independence Day, July 4, is all about.”

To hear more, watch the clip above.

Want more from Mark Levin?

To enjoy more of "the Great One" — Mark Levin as you've never seen him before — subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

Liberals’ Latest Anti-Trump Crusade Proves Embarrassing Bust

'Free America is whatever we make it'

One declaration sparked a nation. The other sparks confusion.



This week, my university emailed a Fourth of July reflection that caught my attention. It claimed the “backbone of our independence” is entrepreneurship and praised secular universities as the seedbed of innovation — and, by extension, democracy itself.

I’m all for business. Enterprise, creativity, and free markets foster prosperity and reward initiative. But business doesn’t create liberty. It depends on liberty. Markets flourish only when justice, rights, and human dignity already exist. In other words, business is a fruit of independence, not its root.

Our freedoms — legal, political, scientific, and economic — grow best in soil nourished by the belief in human dignity grounded in something greater than man.

As we celebrate Independence Day, it’s worth remembering the true foundation of American freedom. The Declaration of Independence doesn’t just announce our break with Britain — it explains why that break was just. “We hold these truths to be self-evident,” it says, “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.”

That single sentence tells us where rights come from: not from governments or markets, but from God. Human equality doesn’t rest on ability, wealth, or status — qualities that always vary. It rests on the shared reality that each of us bears the image of the same Creator.

This truth isn’t just historical. It remains the cornerstone of liberty. Without it, terms like “human rights” or “justice” collapse into slogans. If rights don’t come from God, where do they come from? Who gives them? And who can take them away?

Contrast our Declaration with the United Nations’ 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. That document says people “have” rights — but doesn’t explain why or where they come from or why rights matter. It invokes no Creator, no image of God, no natural law, no self-evident truth or moral source beyond political consensus. Rights, it suggests, are whatever the international community agrees they are.

That’s a dangerous idea. If rights come from consensus, consensus can erase them. If governments or global committees grant rights, they can redefine or revoke them when convenient. There is no firm ground, only shifting sands.

Many Americans now prefer this softer, godless version of human dignity. They invoke justice but reject the Judge. They want rights without a Creator, happiness without truth, liberty without responsibility. But rights without God offer no security — and happiness without God dissolves into fantasy. It’s a mirage.

This project of cutting freedom off from its source cannot last. Our freedoms — legal, political, scientific, and economic — grow best in soil nourished by the belief in human dignity grounded in something greater than man.

RELATED: The most memorable epocha in the history of America

  ivan-96 via iStock/Getty Images

We live in God’s world. That distinction matters. A society built on contracts negotiates rights. A society built on covenants honors obligations to the truth. The difference isn’t just theological — it’s civilizational.

By rejecting the Creator, we don’t advance progress. We erase the foundation that made progress possible. C.S. Lewis put it this way: “You cannot go on 'explaining away' forever: you will find that you have explained explanation itself away.”

Explain away God, and you explain away the reason rights exist.

So this Independence Day, remember what liberty really means — and what sustains it. We’re not free because we said so. We’re free because we answer to a law higher than any court or committee. We are created equal because we are created — period.

Entrepreneurship has its place. But the American experiment wasn’t born from a business plan. It began with a declaration that acknowledged God. If we want that experiment to endure, we must not forget what made it possible in the first place.

The founders were young and so is America — really



Although America’s 250th birthday is still one year away, there is a fun, unique, and mathematical fact about this year's 249th birthday that will help illustrate just how young America is as a nation.

To do that, we can start with the age of President Thomas Jefferson on the day he died — significantly enough, on the day America was celebrating its 50th birthday: July 4, 1826. Jefferson was 83.

Just three 83-year-olds living back-to-back-to-back takes you to the year our nation was founded.

As an interesting aside, our third president was not the only commander in chief whose life was historically tied to America's birthday. President John Adams also died within five hours of Jefferson on July 4, 1826. Five years later, on July 4, 1831, our fifth president and founding father James Monroe also passed away.

Not to be too maudlin, one president was actually born on the Fourth of July. In 1872, Calvin Coolidge came into the world and would grow up to become America's 30th president.

RELATED: Yes, Ken Burns, the founding fathers believed in God — and His ‘divine Providence’

  Wynnter via iStock/Getty Images

 

So what does Jefferson’s age of 83 have to do with this year’s national birthday celebration? Well, if you find an 83-year-old person living in America and go all the way back to the year he was born, you would find yourself in 1942. Now, in 1942, find a person who was born 83 years in the past, back to 1859. Finally, find a person born 83 years before that, and you arrive at ... 1776!

Just three 83-year-olds living back-to-back-to-back takes you to the year our nation was founded.

And while we're pondering this age business, it's also fun to look at the relative youth of those who signed the Declaration of Independence, keeping in mind that 56 delegates representing the 13 original colonies actually put their very “lives, fortunes, and sacred honor” on the line when they signed their John Hancock on the document (and, yes, one of them was indeed John Hancock).

Also, with present-day controversy in mind, it is worth noting that none of the representatives signed using an auto-quill.

  

The average age of the document’s signers was 44 years, which happened to be George Washington's age at the time. And Washington's nemesis across the pond, the other George, King George III of England? He was 38.

The oldest signer of the Declaration was (no surprise) Benjamin Franklin, age 70.

Finally, by now you have probably done the math to figure out the age of Thomas Jefferson — the document’s chief author — when he signed: 33.

Now, enjoy the celebrations and get ready for the biggest one of all, next year’s 250th!

Editor's note: A version of this article appeared originally at American Thinker.

Fireworks, rodeos, and cowboy church: A town's July 4th stands for God and country



Each Independence Day, Prescott, Arizona — a Western city with roughly 47,000 people that still feels like a small-town haven — erupts with vibrant fireworks, the thunder of the rodeo, and parades that fill the streets with Americans waving the Stars and Stripes in celebration of the nation they hold dear.

Located approximately two hours north of Phoenix in Yavapai County, far from Arizona's urban sprawl, Prescott stands firm as a defender of traditional values. Faith, family, and love of country are central to the town's July Fourth celebrations, which extend over the week.

'And to play good country patriotic songs at this event in front of the entire town ... makes my soul shine!'

Some of those festivities include a spectacular fireworks show at the town's beautiful Watson Lake and the Annual Whiskey Row Boot Race, where kids and adults put on their cowboy boots for a Western-spirited dash.

John Heiney, communications outreach manager for the city of Prescott, told Blaze News, "Events in Prescott, specifically for the Fourth of July, bring residents out and visitors to our destination from miles away. Not only do we get to celebrate the 249th anniversary of our country, but we get to celebrate the freedom, beauty, and wonders of our destination. Tourism is the heartbeat of our community, and having a holiday to celebrate with our neighbors and visitors is something we look forward to year after year."

RELATED: Stop trying to segregate the American founding

  Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images

The rodeo

The World's Oldest Rodeo is arguably the town's most notable event during the week of Independence Day. This year, from June 30 through July 6, Prescott Frontier Days will host several traditional rodeo performances and "Mutton Bustin' Competitions," where young cowboys and cowgirls ride sheep to compete for a gold belt buckle.

The town's Depot Marketplace serves as the venue for rodeo dances, where attendees can enjoy country music performances by "Lonesome Valley," a band led by one of Prescott's most well-known musicians, Sky "Daddy" Conwell.

'The tradition runs deep!'

Conwell told Blaze News, "This is the third year we played at this historic event," adding that he feels "blessed, honored, and humbled" to be a part of it.

"For a small town, Prescott has many amazing musicians and bands, and that they chose us this year makes me smile ear to ear. I've been smiling from the time I got the news!" Conwell said. "And to play good country patriotic songs at this event in front of the entire town (and cowboys and cowgirls from all over the state who always make the trek here for July 4) makes my soul shine!"

RELATED: The prayers that shaped a nation can save it again

  Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images

The parades

The Kiwanis Club of Prescott, chartered 101 years ago, will put on the Kiwanis Kiddie Parade during the annual Prescott Frontier Days celebration.

Jim Tilley, the president of the Kiwanis Club of Prescott and a local veterinarian, told Blaze News that this Fourth of July marks the 84th year of the kids' parade, the local club's oldest continuous project.

Approximately 800 children, ages 12 and under, are expected to participate in this year's event, wearing Western and patriotic costumes. Those with the most star-spangled outfits and floats can win prizes.

  Image Source: Kiwanis Club of Prescott

Tilley said, "Kiwanis members and townspeople alike take delight in seeing the smiles on the kids' faces as they walk behind an official police escort in their own downtown. Many of the parents bringing their children reminisce about walking in the Kiddie Parade themselves when they were kids. The tradition runs deep!"

All of the winners of the children's parade are invited to ride on the Kiwanis float in the rodeo parade the following day — the event's 138th annual parade, described as a "wonderful tradition that celebrates our rich Western history."

Honoring first responders

As part of the annual Independence Day celebrations, the Prescott Firefighter's Charities hosts the Hose Cart Races, which originated in the late 1800s as a rivalry between the two hose cart companies before the arrival of fire engines in the 1920s.

'I looked forward to watching him!'

First responders — including firefighters, police officers, and ambulance crew — and their immediate family members are invited to participate in the event, where they race against an opposing team. The challenge involves wheeling historic hose carts to a water source, connecting to a hydrant, and turning on the water to knock down the rival's cone.

  Image Source: Prescott Firefighter's Charities

Amy Seets, the vice president of the PFFC and chair of the Hose Cart Races, told Blaze News that the competition is an event that the entire community eagerly anticipates each year.

"When my son was in high school, he was a [Prescott Fire Department] cadet and looked forward all year to competing on the PFD Cadet hose cart team," she said. "I looked forward to watching him! As an adult, after he came home from the Army, he went to work for Prescott Fire and was back competing in the hose cart races every year, and I still couldn't wait to watch."

Seets explained that the event pays tribute to history and tradition while connecting the community with their local first responders.

  Prescott Firefighter's Charities

Glory to God

Pastor Dale Partridge, the lead pastor of Prescott's King's Way Reformed Church, described the Fourth of July celebrations as a "big moment to remind the nation who we are and who we were."

'It's driven by the moral law of God, the Ten Commandments.'

"We just want to figure out a way that we can engage in any way to help the nation remember that we were founded as a Christian nation," he told Blaze News. "We've taken that position to be engaged, especially on events that are going down downtown with a patriotic tone."

Partridge's church prioritizes remaining active in the Prescott community, upholding the principle that freedom demands stewardship of the sacred values of liberty.

Last year, the church participated in the annual rodeo parade, playing patriotic country music while carrying a large banner and signs reading, "Christ is King."

RELATED: A Marine’s Memorial Day message: Don’t forget the price

  Image Source: Pastor Dale Partridge

"There seems to be more patriotism that is driven by Christianity," he explained. "It's driven by the moral law of God, the Ten Commandments. It's driven by scripture in the Bible."

This faith-first spirit permeates Prescott's celebrations, uniting families and churches in gratitude for God-given freedoms.

RELATED: Is your kitchen table off limits to Jesus?

  Image Source: Pastor Dale Partridge

As the week's Fourth of July festivities wind down, the rodeo grounds host Cowboy Church on Sunday, where worshippers gather to praise the Lord and reflect on the blessings of liberty, a fitting capstone to a week rooted in devotion.

In Prescott, Arizona, the Fourth of July celebrations symbolize enduring values that define America. As the fireworks fade over the town's lake, the flame of liberty continues to burn bright.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

The soul of the republic still belongs to Washington



As we celebrate Independence Day, it’s worth reflecting on America’s founding character — especially the man who defined it: George Washington.

Washington didn’t build his legacy on grand speeches. He led with silence, sacrifice, and restraint. He may not have written poetry, but he lived it — with grit in war, grace in peace, and great wisdom in his letters, journals, and Farewell Address.

This Fourth of July, as fireworks fill the night sky, let’s also make room for silence — for healing, for grief, for endurance.

He didn’t just fight for a nation — he helped shape its soul. Washington understood that a country isn’t defined only by its victories, but by how it makes meaning out of its wounds.

In our time of division and disillusionment, we would do well to reclaim the legacy Washington embodied. Resilience isn’t the denial of pain but rather transformation through it. And the only vision worth holding on to is the one that unites us in building our future as a nation.

Trauma doesn’t end the story. Often, it begins the most meaningful chapters. That’s true in my life — and in America’s. Growth has never come from comfort. It comes from hardship, from wounds we don’t hide from but confront. Psychologists call it “post-traumatic growth.” It’s the idea that suffering, when faced and integrated, can lead to deeper purpose, stronger relationships, and a more grounded sense of self.

I guess most Americans would just call it “history.”

I led soldiers into Iraq in 2003 and returned to a nation largely untouched by the war I had lived. But my reckoning came later — when a brief Wall Street career collapsed, when a home invasion shattered my sense of safety, and when therapy forced me to face what I had tried for years to outrun: trauma, guilt, grief.

What followed wasn’t just recovery. It was transformation — a quiet strength rooted in humility and meaning. Post-traumatic growth teaches that suffering, when faced honestly, can lead to deeper purpose, stronger relationships, and a more grounded self.

That truth doesn’t belong to me. It belongs to us all.

From Valley Forge to Gettysburg, from the Great Depression to Ground Zero, America has been forged in fire. Our greatest progress has rarely come in peacetime. Lincoln didn’t rise when things were easy. The Greatest Generation wasn’t shaped in comfort. Renewal always follows rupture.

We’re in such a moment again. Pressure is building — on our national identity, our personal stories, our sense of unity. But pressure can forge something stronger, if we let it.

We must reject the lie that trauma equals weakness. PTSD is real — often invisible, often devastating. But it’s not the end of the story. Alongside post-traumatic stress, we can teach post-traumatic strength. The kind Washington lived. The kind America has always needed.

That’s part of why I wrote “Downriver: Memoir of a Warrior Poet.” Yes, it tells a story of trauma — from childhood instability to the battlefields of Iraq, from Wall Street collapse to personal unraveling. But more importantly, it traces the long road of healing — not as a tidy comeback story, but as a messy, hard-earned path toward growth and integration.

RELATED: The prayers that shaped a nation can save it again

  Wirestock via iStock/Getty Images

The journey is not reserved for veterans alone. It belongs to survivors of addiction, loss, illness, injustice, and personal collapse. It belongs to first responders, caregivers, and ordinary Americans living through extraordinary hardship.

But growth isn’t guaranteed. It requires honesty. It requires community. It demands a culture willing to honor both the warrior and the poet — the one who endures and the one who reflects, the one who fights and the one who heals.

Too often, we swing between denial and despair. But what if we told a different story? What if we treated our national wounds not as signs of weakness but as calls to deepen our roots?

We’ve done it before. The post-9/11 generation gave us new models of service and empathy. The scars of the COVID-19 pandemic will never fully heal, but they can teach us lessons about connection, community, and what really matters.

The question isn’t whether we’ve been wounded. We have. The real question is what kind of country we’ll become in response. Will we let trauma divide us further — or use it to rediscover what binds us together?

This Fourth of July, as fireworks fill the night sky, let’s also make room for silence — for healing, for grief, for endurance. Let’s honor not only what we’ve won but how we’ve grown.

That’s the path of the warrior poet. That’s Washington’s legacy. And it can be ours, too.

Glenn Beck’s fireworks history lesson will forever change your 4th of July sky



Tonight, across the entire country, explosions of colorful pyrotechnics will light up the sky as red, white, and blue-clad Americans of all ages ooh and aah, just as they have since 1777 when the American tradition first began at the behest of John Adams.

Yet most of these patriotic revelers are likely unaware of the fascinating history behind the dazzling fireworks that punctuate their Fourth of July celebrations.

On this July 2023 episode of “The Glenn Beck Program,” Glenn dove into the wild history of fireworks. What he shared is sure to transform your summer holiday celebrations forever.

  

“The history of fireworks is crazy” and “spans the entire globe,” Glenn says.

Historians disagree about the origins of fireworks, with some contending they originated in China and others arguing they were initially developed in the Middle East or India.

“Either way, we do know that the first firecracker in China was actually created unintentionally when a stick of bamboo was tossed into a fire and it cracked,” Glenn says, noting that these “natural firecrackers” were believed to “ward off evil spirits.”

Then “around 800 B.C., a Chinese alchemist,” aiming to concoct the elixir of “eternal life,” combined “sulfur, charcoal, [and] potassium nitrate.” What he created, ironically, was gunpowder, which the Chinese then began packing into bamboo shoots, and later “paper tubes,” and tossing into fires to create firecrackers.

Compared to the soaring kaleidoscopic bursts we adore today, these ancient Chinese explosives “were not launched into the air” and had “no added colors,” says Glenn.

Projectile fireworks arrived on the scene around 900 A.D. when fireworks were “fastened to arrows,” which the Chinese fired at their enemies. “Over the next 200 years, the fireworks were made into rockets that could be fired at your enemy without the help of an arrow,” Glenn says, noting that these warfare explosives were ironically used in celebrations as well.

Over the next several centuries, fireworks spread across the civilized world. By the 1600s, fireworks, still just “plain orange” in color, were handled by “fire masters” and their assistants, who were referred to as “little green men” because they had to “wear wet leaves to protect themselves from the sparks,” Glenn explains.

While “early American settlers brought the fireworks with them to the new world,” it would be another “60 years” before “the elaborate sparkles of red, white, and blue” we enjoy to this day would be invented.

Like America herself, “the Fourth of July sky is a melting pot of creativity and innovation that came from all over the world,” Glenn says.

Tonight, “we will all sit on the back of our trucks or in bleachers and watch our one fireworks display and celebrate the one truth: We are free,” he says. “We are the freest country ever to grace the Earth.”

“We've made a lot of mistakes, and that is true. We've been a bad country, and we've been a great country, but we're still a country called the United States of America, and we are free.”

To hear more, watch the clip above.

Want more from Glenn Beck?

To enjoy more of Glenn’s masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis, and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

The crown laughed at our Declaration — but America got the last word



John Adams believed America’s independence should be marked with “pomp, shews, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations.” He got his wish. Within a year of the Declaration’s signing on July 4, 1776, celebrations had become a colonies-wide tradition.

The reaction across the Atlantic, however, struck a very different tone.

This wasn’t just about taxes or trade policy. It was about the belief that free men could govern themselves.

The British response was not stunned disbelief or deep introspection. It was mockery — and, ultimately, a grave miscalculation.

The war didn’t begin with the Declaration. A year earlier, in August 1775, King George III had already issued a Proclamation of Rebellion. The crown had stopped viewing the dispute as a matter of political redress. It now saw open revolt.

But the Declaration shifted the terms. What landed in London by mid-August 1776 wasn’t a petition or compromise. It was a bold, philosophical argument for national divorce. In British eyes, it was treason.

A declaration dismissed

British newspapers published the Declaration widely. The London Chronicle printed it, along with other major papers. But few took it seriously. To them, it was just another provocation from unruly colonials.

The elite mocked Thomas Jefferson’s talk of “unalienable rights.” Gen. William Howe, sent to crush the rebellion, called the Declaration “extravagant and inadmissible.” The British state responded accordingly.

RELATED: July 4 exclusive: What we love about America

  LeoPatrizi via iStock/Getty Images

Within weeks, more than 32,000 British troops — including 8,000 German mercenaries — sailed into New York Harbor. It was the largest overseas force Britain had ever fielded. Howe aimed to stamp out the uprising before year’s end.

The campaign nearly succeeded.

George Washington’s army suffered defeat after defeat, narrowly escaping destruction on Long Island. By autumn, the American position looked hopeless.

France’s revenge

But while Britain saw a dying rebellion, France saw a chance to strike.

Even before 1776, French agents had begun quietly arming the colonists. The Declaration gave them a pretext to go farther. Though Louis XVI had no love for democracy, he did have a long memory — and Britain’s victory in the Seven Years’ War had come at France’s expense.

With the Declaration in hand, France could cloak strategic revenge in the language of liberty.

Formal recognition wouldn’t come until 1778, but the shift had begun. French arms, cash, and eventually troops transformed the conflict. What began as a colonial revolt became an international war.

Back in London, the American cause began to attract sympathy in Parliament.

In 1777, future British Prime Minister William Pitt took to the House of Lords to warn his colleagues: “You cannot conquer" America.

He was right.

Not just a rebellion — a revolution

What Britain failed to grasp was that America hadn’t simply declared independence. It had declared a new theory of government: one grounded in consent, not inheritance.

The crown mistook revolutionary conviction for rhetorical flourish. Britain's government believed the colonists would fold in the face of overwhelming force. But this wasn’t just about taxes or trade policy. It was about the belief that free men could govern themselves.

Ideas like that can stand up to empires — even the most powerful in the world.

For The First Time In Four Years, Americans Aren’t Paying More For Their July 4 Cookouts

This year’s total cookout cost is down 30 cents from the record high $71.22 bill calculated in 2024 under Biden.

All aboard! Trump should greenlight the Freedom Train



America has long celebrated its greatest moments by train.

In 1915, a steam locomotive carried the Liberty Bell from Philadelphia to San Francisco and back, drawing enormous crowds. In 1947, the Freedom Train crisscrossed the country with priceless artifacts of American history. Then came the biggest triumph: the Bicentennial American Freedom Train of 1976, which drew more than 50,000 people at each of its 138 stops.

The train would take the quarter-millennial celebration directly to the people — right where it belongs.

On the cusp of the nation’s 250th birthday, it’s time to bring that tradition back. The red, white, and blue steam train should roll again — celebrating America’s founding and bringing history to Main Streets across the land.

The original idea came from John Wayne. That alone might have been enough for Kamala Harris to oppose it, had she been elected president. Add in the train’s cinematic clouds of smoke, its role in commemorating the westward settlement, and its unapologetic embrace of American greatness, and it’s hard to imagine today’s progressive leaders welcoming it.

But President Trump would. He’s restoring the spirit Wayne loved: American strength, love of country, masculine virtue. Trump has already pledged to include a statue of the Duke in his proposed National Garden of American Heroes. If he also allows the new train to display the federal artifacts its predecessors carried — the original Constitution, the Louisiana Purchase document, Lincoln’s hat, Ruth’s bat — then the American Freedom Train can run again in 2026.

The artifacts are key. If the administration releases them, the biggest remaining challenge will be time.

In 1976, the train took 15 months to organize. Today, in a country where builders are building again, that timeline can be compressed. But it will take at least a year to prepare the train — to build display cars, ready the steam engine, transport and secure the artifacts, and tackle the logistics of a 48-state journey.

The clock is ticking. A decision now could kick off the celebration by next July 4.

The Bicentennial Freedom Train didn’t just appear for a few fireworks in early July. It helped stretch the nation’s celebration over nearly two years — from the April 1975 anniversary of Lexington and Concord to a final stop in Miami on New Year’s Eve 1976.

A Quarter-Millennial Freedom Train would do the same. It would extend the celebration beyond Independence Day and tie together local and national events like nothing else. That was exactly the intention in 1976. John Warner, head of the American Revolution Bicentennial Administration, called the train “the most visible” element of the celebration — one that helped “sew together” diverse festivities across the country.

Once again, the train would showcase cherished artifacts: Paul Revere’s saddlebags, Washington’s personal copy of the Constitution, JFK’s handwritten inaugural address, even lunar rocks and Olympic memorabilia from the 1980 “Miracle on Ice.”

RELATED: John Wayne’s epic ‘Freedom Train’ could save America’s 250th birthday

  Denver Post via Getty Images

Private citizens would lead the effort, just as they did before. The American Freedom Train Foundation includes veterans of the original Bicentennial train. They know how to plan and execute a coast-to-coast expedition. They just need modest federal support — and access to the artifacts — to bring it to life.

Army veteran and Nashville artist Tim Maggart sings that the Freedom Train is “as American as a line drive.” And that’s exactly what it would be: a rolling, photogenic, crowd-pleasing tribute to our nation. Day after day, the locomotive would thunder past landmarks, through cities and farmlands, beneath America’s spacious skies. And at every stop, Americans would cheer.

The train would symbolize both American power and American pride. It would carry our founding history from coast to coast, just as it once did. And it would take the quarter-millennial celebration directly to the people — right where it belongs.