Master Mag Templet - Frank's International, Inc.

Along with many Americans, many French felt that an
important symbol of freedom was lost. After all, Abraham
Lincoln had been fundamental in freeing the slaves.
So the people of France collected money to buy a gift
for Lincoln’s widow. Each contributor was limited to a
two-cent donation. Together, they purchased a gold medal
inscribed: “Tell Mrs. Lincoln that in this little box is the
heart of France.” Then, in French, the inscription read:
“Dedicated by French democracy to Lincoln, twice-elected
President of the United States – honest Lincoln who abolished
slavery, re-established the union, and saved the
Republic, without veiling the Statue of Liberty.”
The Dream Is Born
That passion for freedom
shared by America and
France deeply impressed
one of de Laboulaye’s
guests at that summer dinner
party – a young sculptor
from Alsace named Frederic
Auguste Bartholdi. The talk
that night amongst the
guests, all prominent in arts
and letters like himself,
Frederic Auguste Bartholdi would soon have special
resonance for young Bartholdi.
The conversation turned to topics global in scope, as
it often did at de Laboulaye’s soirees, and particularly to
the notion of international gratitude. Some of the guests
said there was no such thing. Nations, they argued, fend for
themselves, and even the closest of countries will separate
as soon as one’s self interest conflicts with the other’s.
But de Laboulaye disagreed, calling the bond between
France and the United States special and unbreakable.
Indeed, he said, his land should even consider some sort
of monument to commemorate American independence –
a monument constructed by the two nations together.
Those words would swirl in the young sculptor’s head as
he fought in the French army during the Franco-Prussian
War. When the war ended and his homeland remained in
enemy hands, he considered emigrating to America and
adopting it as his new home. In doubt about his future
and about the ties of two nations, he sought counsel from
de Laboulaye once again – and again left the meeting
imbued with the belief that ties between countries can
be strong. He suggested that Bartholdi travel to America
to see for himself and examine the possibility of some
sort of joint project to demonstrate the friendship between
the two lands.
“Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand a mighty woman...”
— Emma Lazarus
An Inspired Location
Like Francis Scott Key so many years earlier, the site of an
American harbor inspired what would become an artist’s
greatest triumph. As his ship entered New York Harbor, he
knew what the monument should be and where it should
forever stand as an emblem of the special friendship the
two countries shared.
His vision would not be lost to the poet Emma Lazarus. In
1883, she wrote these immortal words:
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, with conquering
limbs astride from land to land; here at our sea-washed,
sunset gates shall stand a mighty woman with a torch, whose
flame is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of
Exiles. From her beacon-hand glows worldwide welcome;
her mild eyes command the air-bridged harbor that twin
cities frame. “Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries
she with silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor, your
huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse
of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost
to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
Finding Funds
Her words captured for the ages the symbols of freedom that
Bartholdi’s sculpture sought to portray. At the statue’s feet lie
the broken shackles of tyranny. The Lady’s tablet, as every
schoolchild knows, is inscribed “July 4, 1776.” And her
torch, held proudly aloft in her right hand, serves as a beacon
for all who seek freedom on our shores.
Interestingly, the statue may never have come to be had it not
been for the efforts of the famous newspaper editor Joseph
Pulitzer. When he took over the New York World in 1883, he
made it his mission to raise the funds for a suitable base for
the statue. He struggled for years to raise both the public’s
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