President Donald Trump unveiled the new “Spirit of ’76” exhibit at Freedom Plaza in Washington, D.C., designed to honor 12 Revolutionary War figures whom he called “heroes and martyrs” in a social media post on Thursday.
The announcement comes just in time for the nation’s semiquincentennial this Saturday, marking the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
Freedom Plaza reopened this week with bronze statues and an operational fountain after extensive rehabilitation that lasted for months.
“This Exhibition includes a series of statues, including an equestrian statue of Founding Father Caesar Rodney, 12 Soldiers of the Revolution, and a set of reliefs honoring the Prison Ship Martyrs — The nearly 12,000 Americans who lost their lives aboard British ships in conditions of unimaginable deprivation, squalor, and disease,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “More Americans died on these prison ships than in all of the War’s battles combined — Many of whom willingly endured suffering and death rather than renounce the Patriot cause.”
“The Exhibition is anchored by a central bronze statue, ‘Spirit of Liberty,’ which is crowned in a wreath of victory, and powerfully wielding the Declaration of Independence and a sword pointed to the sky,” he said, urging the public to see the exhibit.
At the reopening ceremony, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum credited Trump for refurbishing the nation’s capital ahead of the Fourth of July.
Trump “saw the condition that Washington, D.C., was in, and he asked a simple question,” Burgum said in a video. “If we’re the greatest nation on Earth, why wouldn’t we have the most beautiful capital? Why wouldn’t we have the safest capital? And what a transformation the city has seen.”
The refurbishment of Freedom Plaza was part of the administration’s beautification projects, which included repairing fountains in the district and renovating the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
Among the new installations at the open plaza in northwestern D.C. is a monument to Caesar Rodney, a founding father from Delaware who signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776. He is known for his 80-mile horseback ride from his state to Philadelphia, where he needed to break Delaware’s deadlocked vote in favor of independence.
In a subsequent post, Trump recognized Rodney’s grit and determination in riding overnight through stormy weather.
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“Although he suffered from asthma and facial cancer, Rodney immediately set forth on a 80-mile overnight journey by horseback from Dover, Delaware, to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,” the president said. “Enduring a raging thunderstorm, he arrived 250 years ago this very day, July 2, 1776, to cast his decisive vote, and secure America’s glorious destiny of Freedom and Independence.”
“An equestrian statue honoring Rodney’s key contribution now anchors Spirit of 76’ at Freedom Plaza, a new Exhibition in Washington, D.C., honoring the heroes and martyrs of the American Revolution,” Trump added. “Go and see!”