The French Connection to the 4th of July

THIS WILL BE my fourth 4th of July outside the United States. Kerri's fourth too. It's a fun holiday and we'll certainly miss it. Not so much for the fireworks in DC (which are fantastic) but because we usually hang out with family and friends and eat a lot. In honor of Independence Day I'm sharing a clip from today's IHT about the Statue of Liberty. Many of you probably know it was a gift from France over 100 years ago. But there is more to the story...(yes, it's history, keep reading)

...it was conceived nearly 150 years ago almost as much for France as for the United States. The idea for the monument stemmed from a French struggle for freedom that began in 1852, when Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, having overthrown France's democratic republic, declared himself emperor. In the summer of 1865, after enduring 13 years of Napoleon III's near-dictatorial rule, Édouard de Laboulaye, a historian, acted as the host of a dinner for a small group of French liberals to celebrate the North's victory in the American Civil War. To Laboulaye, the restoration of orderly liberty in the United States put his own government to shame.

Over brandy and cigars, he and his guests, who included Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi, the prominent sculptor, decided to organize a public campaign to commemorate American liberty with a grand gift to the United States. But the gift would double as an implicit critique of Napoleon III.

Bartholdi later envisioned a mammoth statue of the kind of ancient Roman goddess that since 1789 had symbolized liberty and the Republic. The French revolutionary tradition actually produced two goddesses: One sported the "liberty cap" and appeared in ardent motion, her breasts often bared, a fierce expression on her face. Her counterpart stood erect and still, her body modestly draped, her expression calm and serene. Bartholdi chose the second, unthreatening icon to have his "Liberty Enlightening the World" depict the stability that French liberals saw in the United States and wanted for their own turbulent land.

By the time construction began in the mid-1870s, Napoleon III had been removed from power and his opponents had created a moderate republican regime. France had escaped the twin perils of revolution and reaction that had characterized its political life for nearly a century. Now, Bartholdi's statue could stand for both the French and the American republics.

The statue took shape over the next 10 years in a huge workshop near the western edge of Paris. Gustave Eiffel, Bartholdi's chief engineer, created its iron skeleton, allowing him to test certain techniques he would use for his great tower in 1889. Fully assembled, the 151-foot "Liberty" loomed high over the Paris rooftops. When it was dismantled for shipment, in 1885, Parisians would miss it. Several smaller versions were built, and two of them still stand in Paris.

Americans would come to regard the statue as a beacon for immigrants. The French have always related it to their complex struggle for liberty.