New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1886-10-27
FRANCE ND ANkRIC4

The unwilling of the torch bearing Liberty
in New-YOrk harbor tomorrow will be q
unique event in the history of nations. 1t will
be a practical illustration of one of Herbert
| Spencer's profound remarks: q" Ideas do not
govern the world. The world is governed by
feelings to which ideas serve only as guides
That flaming torch appraised before the
threshold of the New World symbolizes the
enlightenment of liberty in peace-loving and
law-ahidng States. Tha' is the abstract idea
which Bartholdi's colossal figure embodies
but it has never taken posses sion of either the
French or the American patrons OF this mag
nifcent memorial. 1t has not been one of
those grand thoughts which have an rresisti-
BILE fascination for the susceptible French mind.
Laboulaye did not have Statue of Liberty
in view when he suggested the memorial to
Barthodi in 1865. He proposed an interna-
tonal tribute of some kind to the sympat hetc
| feeling which existed between the two cOun
tries in consequence of their cooperation in the
War of Independence. Liberty and the torch
cdme 10 as the sculptOr's afterthoUghts. The
contributors to Statue and pedestal were not
swayed by the abstract conception to which
Barth0ldi has given prominence. In France
the appeal was made TO the sentiment OF
honorable pride in one of the most inspiring
"reminiscences of national history; and in
America, when the statue was completed, the
pedestal was provided in spirit of honorable
rivalry and of gratitude for so splendid gift.
F,enchmen and Americans alike have been
inspired by fee ings to which the ideas of lber-
ty and enlightenment have "served only as
guides"
The colossal figure mounted on the massive
pedestal is the common work of two sympa-
thete nations. 1t is a memorial Of united action
in the past. 1t represents united thought anu
community of feeling in the Present. 1t
stands for the moral alliance of liberty loving
States, concentrating the generous aid
received by struggling people fi0m a generous
nation and attesting the dignity of democratic
institutions and the pacific destiny of republics
1t is not memorial of national gratitude
since the gift comes from the chiVarous
benelactor. The debt which Am erica owed to
France was paid under historic laws OF com
peDsation a hundred years agO. BarnaVe,
Chateaubriand, Fontanes and all the historians
of the French Revolution have referred TO the
American war one of the proxIuate causes
OF the great movements OF 1889 and 1892.
The Declaration of Rights, the Suspension of
the veto, freedom OF Worship and many other
fundamental principles of the Constituent
Assembly came from America aud the SUCCESS
OF the earlier revolution impaired momentum
to the national uprising in France. History
has It's own processes of compensation. The
Statue is not an acknowledgment of national
obligation. Ii is a token Of united action 10 "a
mOmenious crisis when the fate of democratic
institutions ON TWO continents Was determined. |
Ii is an earnest OF sympathetic feeling in
future beweeD repub lean States.
Tomorrow, then, wall be- a new day IL the |
calendar of natiCns 1t will be n day when
Americsns can repeat Jcffersons famous
phrases 3Every man has Two countries: his
own and France; and when Frenchmen can