The Statue of Liberty & Emma Lazarus

How much do you know about the Statue of Liberty and Emma Lazarus, the author of the famous lines, "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses"?  These lines are from her sonnet, "The New Colossus" which is on a plaque attached to the base of the Statue of Liberty.

The Statue of Liberty was a gift from the French people to the United States.  The torch-bearing arm of the statue was on display at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 1876.  This display launched fund raising efforts to finance a base for the statue to stand on.

Famous authors of the day, including Emma Lazarus, were asked to write something to be auctioned off to raise money for the base for the Statue of Liberty.  In response to this appeal, Emma Lazarus wrote this poem:

The New Colossus

 

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 world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep, ancient land, 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-tossed to me.

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

 

 

In 1885 the completed Statue of Liberty - the work of French sculptor, Frederic Auguste Bartholdi - arrived in New York Harbor, transported by ship in 214 crates.  The statue was mounted on the impressive base provided by the successful fund raising efforts, and was dedicated in 1886.

 

Emma Lazarus was born in New York City in 1849 to a non-practicing, non-religious Jewish family.  She became a successful poet, writer, and translator.  She was an adherent to Georgism, a form of communism promoted by economist Henry George (1839-1897).  Some modern feminists believe she was a Lesbian.

 

A careful reading of Lazarus' poem explains why she is revered by many feminists.  She contrasts the original male Greek Colossus of Rhodes, erected in 280 B.C., with her new female Colossus, the Statue of Liberty.  She describes the original male Colossus as "brazen" and "conquering" while the new female Colossus is benign, maternal, and welcoming.  I doubt that she was grieved by the fact that the original male Colossus of Rhodes was destroyed in an earthquake in 226 B.C.

 

Emma Lazarus died in 1887, a year after the dedication of the Statue of Liberty.  Many years later, in 1903, a plaque engraved with "The New Colossus" was attached to the base of the Statue of Liberty.  Even after doing quite a bit of research, I have not been able to discover who gave permission for this plaque to be installed.

 

Since 1903, "The New Colossus" has been widely quoted and is held in such esteem by some that it rivals the Constitution.  To some it has assumed the authority of holy scripture.  It is often quoted by those who promote open borders and unlimited immigration.  It is even used in an attempt to defend illegal immigration. 

 

Although "The New Colossus" may have great literary value, it is nothing more than a poem among other writings by other authors to be auctioned off to raise money for the base of the Statue of Liberty.  Why this poem, written by a communist as a later addition to the Statue of Liberty, should dictate our immigration policy is beyond understanding.



A Little Sleuthing

          

I'm working on photographing and cataloging Confederate monuments in our area.  There used to be a monument in the middle of North Blvd. in Baton Rouge.  Several years ago, the city decided to create a park there, and the monument was removed with the understanding that it would be re-installed in due time on the grounds of the Old State Capitol Museum, but it has never reappeared.

I called the Old State Capitol this morning.   I told the person who answered about my project and asked the whereabouts of the Confederate monument.  She seemed flustered.  She couldn't answer me.  She put me on hold.  When she came back a few minutes later, she said I would have to talk to someone at the Secretary of State's office.  She gave me the name and number of a particular person there.

I called this person and put the same question to her.  She was pleasant enough and told me that the "soldier portion" (not the base) of the monument is part of the Sarah Morgan Dawson exhibit at the Old State Capitol.  "Because," she said, "Sarah Dawson wrote about Confederate soldiers in her diary."  I told her that I have read Sarah's diary, and she did indeed write about Confederate soldiers (Yankee ones, too, but I didn't mention that).

I said that I wondered why the Old State Capitol didn't tell me the monument was there when I had called them earlier.  She said that since monuments are such a sensitive subject right now, they probably prefer to steer any discussion of them to the Secretay of State.  

She went on to tell me that the "soldier portion" on display is the property of the City of Baton Rouge.  It is classified as an "artifact on loan."  She made a thinly veiled reference to the fact that the current city administration is difficult to deal with.  I had the impression that this person may be sympathetic to our pro-monument cause, but of course, can't say so.  I think she was letting me know that the hostile city administration does still own our soldier.

About a half hour after ending this conversation, I was kicking myself for not asking the whereabouts of the monument base, so I called back and got to speak to the same person.  She has no idea where the base is, but the City may know.   I asked if there are any documents that record what was engraved on the base.  She said she doesn't know, but if there are any, they would probably be held by the City.  

I don't think I'll pursue any detective work on the monument with City Hall.  No good can come from bringing a Confederate monument to the attention of a corrupt and hostile city government - not now, anyway.  

There are some excellent photos of the original 1886 monument.  In the 1950s the monument was placed on a new base, and there are photos of that as well at this link   http://historicalbatonrouge.blogspot.com/2008/09/east-west-baton-rouge-civil-war.html

I plan to visit the Old State Capitol soon and will take some photos of the "soldier portion" where it is now.

The Catalyst for Confederate Renewal



Removal of the Jefferson Davis monument in New Orleans

 

All except one of the wars Americans have fought throughout our history have been fought on foreign soil.  Our soldiers and sailors left home to fight an enemy abroad.  But in that exceptional War of 1861, Southern soldiers fought on their own soil.  The enemy was on the doorstep of their homes.  In some cases the enemy had set up camp inside their homes.  What man would not fight to protect his home and family?  

While some could and do question our involvement in foreign wars, one would think that we could all agree that if an enemy is threatening your home and your family, you have a right - yea, a duty - to fight.  In spite of the conflicting views about the causes of the War of 1861, you would think we could agree on that much.  But the irony is that the only veterans in our history who are now denigrated and subjected to ridicule are the ones who fought on their doorsteps to protect their families.  

Prior to the 1960s the memory of the Confederate soldier enjoyed almost universal acclaim.  Our northern cousins may not have agreed on the causes of the war, but they understood and appreciated the Confederate soldier's valor and tenacity.  At the same time most Southerners acknowledged that the Union soldier was bravely doing his duty as he saw it.  I'm old enough to remember when there was some goodwill on both sides about this awful part of our history.  It required a measure of memory suspension, but most of us were willing to suspend memory to achieve harmony.  

Sadly, those harmonious feelings are stretched thin these days.  But the demographics of this conflict have changed since the end of that war in 1865.  156 years is a long time.   It's not our cousins presently living in the north who are clamoring to assassinate the character of the Confederate soldier and remove every monument that reveres his devotion to home and family.  Our enemies live among us.  We've put some of them in positions of power.  I hope we remember that in upcoming elections.

In the meantime, the purging of Confederate heritage continues.  In the wee hours of the morning on May 11, the Jefferson Davis monument in New Orleans was dismantled and hauled away by Mayor Mitch Landrieu's masked henchmen.  They may remove our Confederate heroes from public property, but they will never succeed in removing them from our hearts.  They may find that this holier-than-Thou purge of theirs may be the catalyst for a renewal of Confederate spirit.  And those of you who are apathetic about the Confederate soldier should ponder the fact that the movers and shakers behind this war on Confederate heritage will eventually be coming after what is near and dear to you - the American flag, American history, and the American soldier.

 

The Perennial Confederate Spirit

 

The destruction of historical Confederate monuments in New Orleans has begun.  Yesterday, in the wee hours of the morning, the Liberty monument was dismantled by a crew who wore masks and bullet-proof vests.  They were watched over by snipers on rooftops, in case some violent Southern patriot showed up to protest.  They need not have worried.  Most Southern patriots know that their jobs would be in jeopardy if they showed up to protest the removal of a Confederate monument.  Political correctness only offers freedom of speech to those on the left side of the political spectrum.  Nonetheless, there were a few brave, but law-abiding, Southern patriots who showed up with candles to mourn the monument's removal.  Most of them had gray hair.

Ever since Lee surrendered at Appomattox, it has been assumed by many that this love for the South and its devotion to freedom and limited government would eventually disappear as the generations who remembered the war of 1861 died off.  They were disappointed in their assumptions, but they continue to hope.  Recently, a prominent celebrity opined that the world will be a better place as soon as the current generation of old Southern white people are dead.  This celebrity is one of the elect who is allowed free speech.

This state of affairs is often blamed on Yankees and other outsiders, but I don't think that's quite right.  I know Northerners (I won't call them Yankees) and immigrants (legal ones) who hold the South and its values in high esteem.  And there are native Southerners who worship at the altar of political correctness.  Many of those hold positions of power like the mayor of New Orleans.

Some try to say this is strictly a racial issue, and certainly race is a factor; but to think that it is all explained away by race is to oversimplify the situation.  There are blacks who have joined the efforts to preserve the Confederate battle flag and Confederate monuments.  And, at the same time,  these Confederate symbols have as many or more enemies among whites as among blacks.

No matter where you stand on this state of affairs, you can be sure that it will not be resolved any time soon.  Those who hope for the end of the Confederate spirit with each passing generation are always disappointed.  You can suppress truth, even for long periods of time - but you cannot kill it.

Git Along, Little Dogies!

They say you learn something new everyday.  Once in a while you learn something new that's really extraordinary.  And that's exactly what happened recently.  Last month Stella Tanoos, our friend and local historian, gave a presentation at the Island Country Club about Louisiana cattle drives.

Now go ahead and admit it.  You thought - just like I did - that Texas had a monopoly on big cattle drives.  Wasn't every cattle drive movie we ever saw about Texas?  And, not to take away from Texas, there was a lot of cattle driving going on there between 1866 and 1890.

But did you know that cattle drives started in Louisiana in 1765 when a fellow named Jean Antoine Bernard Dauterive contracted to supply the newly-arrived Acadians with cattle and land to graze them on? 

Louisiana cattlemen used several routes to get their cattle to New Orleans to market.  Plaquemine was on one of these routes, and large cattle drives followed along the bayou. 

As I type this, I'm looking out the window at Bayou Plaquemine.  We've lived on the bayou since 1970.  I knew that a railroad once ran across our property.  Now I'm thinking that a lot of hooves may have pounded the earth here before the railroad came and went. 

By 1881 the cattle drives were pretty much over.  By that time cattle were being shipped by train and steamboat.  But Louisiana cattle drives spanned over a hundred years (1765-1881) and moved over two million cattle! 

Thanks, Stella, for all your research!