Liberty: The Uniter of Nations
On this day in 1886, President Grover Cleveland dedicated the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor. Proposed as a gift by French abolitionist Édouard de Laboulaye, the statue was created to celebrate the centennial of America’s independence and to rekindle the Franco-American alliance forged during the American Revolutionary War. However, this “new colossus” was more than just a present. She represented the two nations’ turbulent history: their friendship first united by liberty, and its sudden end when France replaced that common value with political ideologies during its own revolution. The tale embodies the warning in Washington’s Farewell Address against the deadly threat of political factionalism.