EXECUTIVE MANSION, _May 11, 1886_.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:
By a joint resolution of Congress approved March 3, 1877, the President
was authorized and directed to accept the colossal statue of "Liberty
Enlightening the World" when presented by the citizens of the French
Republic, and to designate and set apart for the erection thereof a
suitable site upon either Governors or Bedloes Island, in the harbor of
New York, and upon the completion thereof to cause the statue "to be
inaugurated with such ceremonies as will serve to testify the gratitude
of our people for this expressive and felicitous memorial of the
sympathy of the citizens of our sister Republic."
The President was further thereby "authorized to cause suitable
regulations to be made for its future maintenance as a beacon and for
the permanent care and preservation thereof as a monument of art and the
continued good will of the great nation which aided us in our struggle
for freedom."
Under the authority of this resolution, on the 4th day of July, 1884,
the minister of the United States to the French Republic, by direction
of the President of the United States, accepted the statue and received
a deed of presentation from the Franco-American Union, which is now
preserved in the archives of the Department of State.
I now transmit to Congress a letter to the Secretary of State from
Joseph W. Drexel, esq., chairman of the executive committee of "the
American committee on the pedestal of the great statue of 'Liberty
Enlightening the World,'" dated the 27th of April, 1886, suggesting
the propriety of the further execution by the President of the joint
resolution referred to by prescribing the ceremonies of inauguration
to be observed upon the complete erection of the statue upon its site
on Bedloes Island, in the harbor of New York.
Thursday, the 3d of September, being the anniversary of the signing of
the treaty of peace at Paris by which the independence of these United
States was recognized and secured, has been suggested by this committee
under whose auspices and agency the pedestal for the statue has been
constructed as an appropriate day for the ceremonies of inauguration.
The international character which has been imprinted upon this work by
the joint resolution of 1877 makes it incumbent upon Congress to provide
means to carry their resolution into effect.
Therefore I recommend the appropriation of such sum of money as in the
judgment of Congress shall be deemed adequate and proper to defray the
cost of the inauguration of this statue.
I have been informed by the committee that certain expenses have been
incurred in the care and custody of the statue since it was deposited on
Bedloes Island, and the phraseology of the joint resolution providing
for "the permanent care and preservation thereof as a monument of art"
would seem to include the payment by the United States of the expense so
incurred since the reception of the statue in this country.
The action of the French Government and people in relation to the
presentation of this statue to the United States will, I hope, meet with
hearty and responsive action upon the part of Congress, in which the
Executive will be most happy to cooperate.