"give me liberty or give me death"

"The bosom of America is open to receive not only the Opulent and respectable Stranger, but the oppressed and persecuted of all Nations And Religions; whom we shall wellcome to a participation of all our rights and previleges, if by decency and propriety of conduct they appear to merit the enjoyment. "
george washington, 1783

the deed of gift of the statue of liberty
july 4, 1884

The Fourth of July, 1884, Anniversary Day of American Independence.

In presence of M. Jules Ferry, Minister of Foreign Affairs of France, and President of the Council of Ministers.

Count Ferdinand de Lesseps, in the name of the Committee of the Franco-American Union, and of the national manifestation of which that Committee has been the organ, has presented the colossal statue of "Liberty Enlightening the World," the work of the sculptor Bartholdi, to His Excellency, Mr. Morton, United States Minister at Paris, praying him to be the interpreter of the national sentiment of which this work is the expression.

Mr. Morton, in the name of his compatriots, thanks the Franco-American Union for this testimony of sympathy from the French people; he declares that, in virtue of the powers conferred upon him by the President of the United States, and the Committee of Work in America, represented by its honorable president, Mr. William M. Evarts, he accepts the statue, and that it shall be erected in conformity with the vote of Congress of the 22nd of February, 1877; in the harbor of New York, as a souvenir of the unalterable friendship of the two nations.

In faith of which there have signed:

In the name of France:
Jules Ferry—Jules Brisson.

In name of the Committee of the Franco-American Union:
Ferdinand de Lesseps—Edmond de Lafayette.

In name of the United States:
Levi P. Morton.

the new colossus

emma lazarus

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 lands, 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-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"