Statue of Liberty

3 Pages 659 Words

The Statue of Liberty was the idea of two frenchmen who admired America's freedoms, and although Lady Liberty was their brainchild, it was, in fact, really a gift from the people of France who funded it by through private donations. Lady Liberty has welcomed millions of immigrants from around the globe. She was give with the hopes of celebrating universal freedom and she has served her purpose well.
Lady Liberty is commonly percieved to be a joint Franco-American Conglanoration, but in fact, has roots that are much older.
The simple tale is that the generous French offered Liberty as a gift, honoring America's cherished ideals of freedom and opportunity for all. The true circumstances, of course, were much more convoluted. The idea for the Statue of Liberty first took hold of the imagination of its sculptor, Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, during a dinner party at the home of Eduoard-Rene Lefebvre de Laboulaye, a French intellectual and activist who hoped to sponsor an enormous monument that might serve as propaganda against the conservative leaders of the then shaky French government (Trachtenberg, 28). Bartholdi had always wanted to create a colossal, awesome structure, and Laboulaye named him to create what Laboulaye envisioned as an powerful political lever for shaping French government and society.
The first conversations with Laboulaye occurred in 1871, more than fifteen years before the Statue of Liberty would actually stand within New York Harbor. A lot of arm-twisting for funds took place in the meantime, along with two trips to the United States, and a variety of differing sketches for the statue. At the sametime, Laboulaye managed to rise quickly to prominence within the French government, pushing an amendment through the chambers of parliament that essentially called for the establishment of republican status for France. The result: the Third Republic. To fortify their regime, Third Republic leaders strongly advocated the...