[Speech of William M. Evarts at the banquet given by the Chamber of
Commerce of the State of New York, June 24, 1885, to the officers of
the French national ship "Isere," which brought over the Bartholdi
statue. Charles Stewart Smith, vice-President of the Chamber, presided
at the dinner and introduced the speaker as follows: "Gentlemen, fill
your glasses for the seventh regular toast: 'Liberty Enlightening the
World, a great truth beautifully and majestically expressed by the
unique gift which our guests of to-night have brought safely to our
shores.' The gentleman who will respond to this toast needs no
introduction--Senator William M. Evarts."]
MR. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN:--I may be permitted at the outset,
to speak a little about the share that we have taken on this side of the
water in this great achievement which in its glorious consummation, now
receives the applause of the world.
When this great conception of friendship for America, joy at our
triumph, and their own undaunted love of liberty, liberty for France,
liberty for the United States, liberty for the world, arose, then the
French people were set aflame with a desire to bring, as it were, their
gifts of frankincense and myrrh to lay on this altar of liberty, that
its censer might never die out, but forever perfume and ennoble the air
of the world. [Applause.]
The genius of Art, the patriotism of France, the enthusiasm of its
people, accomplished by contributions drawn from more than one hundred
thousand, perhaps two hundred thousand givers, made up this statue, not
equalled in the history of the world, and not conceived in its genius or
its courage before. [Applause.]
Then it was for us to say whether we would furnish the pedestal upon
which this great gift and emblem of Liberty should find its secure and
permanent home; without the aid of the Government and by the movement of
our own people in this city, an organization wholly voluntary, and
without pretension or assumption had the faith that the American people
would furnish a home fit for the statue of Liberty, however magnificent
should be the reception, that would comport with its own splendor.
[Cheers.]
This organization undertook actively its work in 1882, before the statue
was completed, and while it remained somewhat uncertain to many who
doubted whether the great statue would really be brought to its
anticipated prosperity and success. But we went on, and now, within
three years, this work, both of receiving and collecting subscriptions
and of raising the pedestal itself, will have been completed, and I do
not hesitate to say, in the face of all critics and all doubters, that a
work of so great magnitude, either in its magnificence, or in its labor,
has never before been completed in so short a time. [Applause.]
When we were reasonably assured of adequate funds, we commenced the
concrete base on which this pedestal was to rest; and no structure of
that kind, of that magnitude, of that necessity, of that perfection and
permanence has ever been accomplished in the works of masonry before.
[Cheers.] Commencing on the ninth of October, 1883, it was completed on
the seventeenth day of May, 1884--and then commenced the work of the
structure proper, of the pedestal, and it went on, and it went on, and
it went sure, and it went safe, if it went slow, and there it stands.
[Cheers.]
And now a word or two about the Committee. An eminent lawyer of our city
was once detected and exposed and applauded for being seen standing with
his hands in his own pockets [laughter], and for about three months, if
you had visited the meetings of this Committee of ours, you would have
seen the whole assembly standing with their hands in their own pockets
[applause], and taking the first step forward asking their
fellow-citizens to follow us, and not for us to follow them. [Cheers.]
And so we went on, and on the tenth of this present month, we had
received in hand $241,000, of which $50,000 came from the grand and
popular movement of a great newspaper--"The World" [three cheers for
"The World"]--fifty thousand dollars! and that made up substantially
what we had announced in advance as what would be required to complete
the pedestal. But where did we miscarry even in that calculation? The
exploration showed us that the concrete mass must go deeper in the
ground, and that cost us alone $85,000, about $30,000 more than we had
counted upon before the exploration; and then the $20,000 more that
makes it up to the $300,000 as our need to complete the pedestal (when
we had counted upon $250,000), is made by such delay and such expenses
as made the general outlay for this immense structure, continuing longer
than would have been necessary, had the promptness of contributions kept
pace with the possibility of completion.
Now, gentlemen, we have been patient and quiet. Nearly one-fourth of the
contributions of the general citizens came from the pockets of the
Committee. Instead of hearing from enterprising Chicago, and ambitious
Boston, they are talking about the slowness and the dulness of New
York's appreciation, of the delays in its contributions. Let the example
of our patriotism and munificence be an example for them to imitate; and
this city of Boston--let their people there reflect that, when they
built Bunker Hill monument, it cost I am informed scarcely $100,000.
They were twenty years in raising it, although the whole country was
canvassed in its aid. [Laughter.]
Well, gentlemen, so much for that. And how great is this monument! How
noble! How beautiful! How inspiring for the time that looks upon its
completion and for the ages that shall mark it hereafter! If our country
and France, as we hope, may go on in the enlargement and advancement of
a glorious civilization, we may feel sure that if our descendants shall
overtop us in wealth, in strength, in art, and equal us in love of
liberty, they will not say that this was not a worthy triumph for the
age in which we live [applause]; and if, unhappily, malign influences
shall degrade our civilization and our fame, and travellers and
dwellers here shall find their power has waned, and their love of
liberty declined, if they shall have become a poverty-stricken and
debased people, what will they think of this remaining monument of a
past and lost age, but that it was a creation of the gods and that no
men ever lived. [Cheers.]
Well, these French gentlemen, the Admiral and the Commandant, how shall
we appreciate the beneficence of their visit, the urbanity of their
attentions to us, and the happy and hearty manner in which they have
accepted our hospitality. Why the Admiral--a greater triumph, let me
say, than he could ever have by the power of his navy--has come here and
carried New York by storm, without firing a gun. [Cheers.] And as for
Commandant De Saune, he has done what in the history of the world--of
our modern world, at least--no nation, no ruler has successfully
attempted: he has kept "Liberty enlightening the World" under the
hatches for thirty days. [Applause.]
It was tried in England, and "Liberty enlightening the World" cut off
the head of the king. Tried again, it drove the dynasty of the Stuarts
forever from that free island. In France, they tried to suppress it, and
it uprooted the ancient monarchy and scattered the forces which were
expected to repress it. The milder form of a limited monarchy, even,
France would not submit to as a repression of liberty, and again twice
over, under an Imperial government, "Liberty enlightening the World" has
broken out from under the hatches. [Cheers.]
But Commandant De Saune is not only a bold represser of mutiny on board
his vessel, but he is a great and cunning navigator; he did not tell it,
but he planned it, and how narrow the calculation was. He arrived here
on the seventeenth of June, Bunker Hill day [applause], and missed the
eighteenth, the day of Waterloo. [Laughter and applause.]--It is thus
that this French genius teaches us new lessons, and evokes irrepressible
applause. [Cheers.]
I imagine that a navigator who could thus seize the golden moment, and
miss the disastrous one, might, if he undertook it, discover the North
Pole. [Laughter.] But I am sure he has better work before him in the
world than that. [Applause.] But if he goes on to that destination, oh,
let us contribute some portion of the cargo that he will put under the
hatches! [Laughter.]
Well, gentlemen, this is a great event, this great triumph of
civilization is indeed laden with many instructions, and many
illustrations. No doubt "Liberty enlightening the World" in modern
history finds its greatest instance in that torch which was lighted
here; but from the enthusiasm and the inexorable logic of French
philosophy on the "equality of man," was furnished we can never say how
much of the zeal and of the courage that enabled our forefathers to
shape the institutions of equality and liberty here [cheers], and all
can mark the reaction upon France, by which our interests, our
prosperity under them encouraged, ennobled and maintained the struggle
for liberty there which overthrew ancient establishments and raised in
their place new. And now both countries, at least, stand on the same
happy combination of liberty regulated by law, and law enlightened by
liberty. [Cheers.] And this great structure, emblem of so much else,
example of so much else, guide to so much else, yet this emblem, this
example, this guide is of the union between the genius and enthusiasm of
liberty, the graceful statue and the massive and compact pedestal of our
own granite by which it is upheld. [Cheers.]
Liberty can only be supported by solid and sober institutions, founded
upon law as built upon a rock; and the structure solid and sober which
sustains it, if Liberty has fled, is but a shapeless and unsightly mass
that is no longer worthy of respect as a structure, to be torn apart
until it can be better rebuilt as the home of liberty. [Prolonged
applause.]