Sad that many consider the statue of liberty plaque poem a founding principle all while ignoring the clear language of the constitution and the federalist papers...
Ironic that the statue was a gift from the French and many claim it’s symbolism should be embraced to secure a fate similar to that of Paris?
Further, the poem was not an original part of the statue... it was added 17 years after she was dedicated.
Actually, it wasn't a gift. People from all over donated money for it.
The Statue of Liberty was not a gift from France to America. We have all heard the shorthand that implies that the statue was exchanged government to government. In fact, Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, a mid-career statue maker, decided to pitch a country he had never visited before on his vision to build a massive lighthouse in the shape of a woman. In his diaries and letters, he described his journey to all corners of America, from Niagara Falls to Washington, D.C., from Chicago to Los Angeles, to explore this exotic land and drum up support.
When no significant government funding emerged, he contrived every possible fundraising strategy himself. He put on spectacles of wonder in Paris, charged visitors admission to watch the statue’s construction in a dusty workshop, sold souvenirs, and petitioned the French government to let him run a national lottery.
In the end it was Joseph Pulitzer, the American newspaper magnate, who helped him finish the job by printing the names of every person who donated even a penny to the cause. This strategy rapidly boosted the circulation of Pulitzer’s newspaper when readers bought a copy simply to see their names in the paper—a brilliant marketing strategy.