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This article was printed on newsprint, pasted into an 1845 publication, "The Cultivator", used as a scrap book, in which several dozen articles are included, most appear to be from the 1870's and 1880's. No dates or identifying text. The text was written as the fund raising for the pedestal was stalled out in New York, about 1884. As has been many times explained, this statue is the gift of Frenchmen to America. The money to pay for it has been contributed in large and small sums by French people of every social station. The statue itself is one hundred and fifty five feet high, but the pedestal on which it is to stand is so great a structure that the statue will tower more than three hundred feet from the ground. Being placed on the summit of an island, it will be visible more than twenty-five miles at sea. During the progress of the work in Paris, thousands upon thousands of interested men and women have visited the shops where the statue was building. The French are a very impressionable people, and one who has ever seen a group of them under political excitement can easily fancy the manner in which they would shout, with nervous enthusiasm, “Vive le Republicae Americaine !’’ It Is said that the idea which some of the more radical of French Republicans have of “liberty” in this country, as indicated by their remarks when led visiting the works, is a very queer one. A description of the process of building the statue, for it is really “built” up with copper plates, is extremely interesting. First, of course, the artist Bartholdi made a statue of “life-size.” Next, each part was taken by itself, and multiplied in size according to a definite rule. Then a framework of wood was built as a sort of mould, and the plates, nearly an inch thick, were fitted to it. Finally all the parts were joined together. But before the statue was shipped to this country, it was all taken apart again, and was transferred to New York in more than three hundred pieces. Some of the measurements are astounding. Pliny tells as that few men were able to clasp the thumb of the Colossus of Rhodes with their arms. But ten men can stand with comfort inside the torch which “Liberty” holds aloft to enlighten the world. It is not much to the credit of the people of the great and wealthy City of New York that they have not long ago contributed the funds to provide the pedestal for this statue. But they have not done so, and by their neglect they have given an opportunity to the people of the whole country to take part in so worthy an object. The statue will stand in New York Bay, but it will be an object of pride to every American, both as a compliment paid to the greatest republic in the world by the greatest of European republics, - and as a conspicuous emblem of our proud but true boast that here the torch of liberty — universal liberty — has burned with the brightest and steadiest flame. Moreover, the statue is not presented to New York City, or to the State, or to the national Government, but to the American people, and while there are good reasons why New Yorkers should be specially interested, it is difficult to see how any true American can be indifferent. The statue is a gift from one people to another – from Frenchmen, who love liberty, to Americans who love it no less. It may be true that the methods by which the French have sought to win liberty are not ours, and that they do not recommend themselves in all respects to men who love law as well as liberty. Some men, also, will be disposed to admit that a colossal statue standing on an island in a harbor not the highest form of art. But what of it ? Let us look to the spirit of the givers, and the grandeur of the gift, and let every one who is able to spare even a few pennies, contribute them, so that the French tribute to liberty may stand upon an enduring American basis.
Statue of Liberty Homepage Statue of Liberty Facts Statue of Liberty Web Links Statue of Liberty Gallery Statue of Liberty News Questions from Visitors to this Site World's Greatest Statues This page maintained by Gary Feuerstein  31 October 2006
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