The story of the Statue of Liberty is a story of change. The people of France gave the Statue to the people of the United States 125 years ago (1885) in recognition of a friendship established during the American Revolution. Over the years, the meanings of the Statue have grown until she has become an international icon of freedom and liberty, the most recognizable symbol of democracy and quite possibly the most photographed statue or monument anywhere in the world.

The idea of the Statue originated around 1865 with Edouard de Laboulaye who saw the United States as a country that had proved that democracy was a viable type of government after surviving a Civil War and abolishing slavery. He also saw the gift as a way to reflect his wish for a democracy in France. Artist Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi, who was known for large-scale work, was commissioned to design this sculpture and in 1874 came to the United States to look for a location for his monument. When he saw Bedloe’s Island from his ship as he sailed into the New York Harbor, he realized it was a perfect location because of the never ending audience it provided.

Bartholdi recruited French engineer Alexandre Gustave Eiffel (1832-1923 and builder of the Eiffel Tower in Paris) to build a skeleton for his statue and used a technique called repousse to create her copper skin – hammering out each piece of copper until it was only 3/32 of an inch thick (the same as two pennies put together). Eiffel, realizing flexibility was needed to allow the Statue to sway in the sometimes violent harbor winds, designed a massive iron pylon and secondary skeletal framework which allowed the copper skin to move independently– yet stand upright.

The Statue became a joint effort between American and France. America built the pedestal, and the French assembled the Statue.

Completed in France in July of 1884, the Statue was disassembled and shipped to the United States, arriving in New York in June 1885. When the pedestal was finished, the Statue was re-assembled (it took four months) and dedicated October 28, 1886 in front of thousands of spectators. In his dedication address, President Grover Cleveland emphasized the spread of American ideals. The Statue is 305 feet from the ground to the tip of the flame – equivalent height of a 22-story building – and was then the tallest structure in New York.

The Statue faces Southeast and was strategically placed inside of Fort Wood which was a perfect base. And it’s position is perfect for ships entering the harbor to see her as a welcoming symbol. Classical images of Liberty have usually been represented by a woman and this Liberty’s face is said to be modeled after the sculptor’s mother.

It’s crown is open on a limited basis. The torch has been closed since the “Black Tom” explosion of July 30, 1916, which was one of the largest acts of sabotage to our nation prior to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor December 7, 1941.

The torch is a symbol of enlightenment lighting the way to freedom and showing the path to Liberty. It’s official name represents her most important symbol: “Liberty Enlightening the World.” The torch, replaced in 1986, is a copper flame covered in 24K gold. It is reflective of the sun’s rays in daytime and lighted by 16 floodlights at night. The original torch, removed in 1984, is inside the lobby of the monument.

The tablet of law, held in the Statue’s left hand, has the date of American Independence July 4, 1776, written on it in Roman numerals (July IV, MDCCLXXVI). The seven spikes on the Statue’s crown represent the seven seas and continents of the world.

It’s location is on Liberty Island on federal property administered by the National Park Service and within the territorial jurisdiction of the State of New York. Visitors ride Ferries to and from the Park. They depart from both the State of New York and New Jersey. Ellis Island, the former federal immigration station, is a national museum of immigration, and is separate from Liberty Island.

Engraved on the pedestal is Emma Lazarus’ poem, The New Colossus written in 1883, the year of father’s birth. Its best-known lines are:

Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore;
Sent these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me …

The poem was placed on a plaque and affixed to an interior wall of the pedestal in 1903 where it was ignored until the 1930s when Europeans seeking asylum from Fascist persecution began arriving in large numbers. Then, recognizing the Statue’s true intentions, it was quoted in speeches and set to music by Irving Berlin and in 1986 the plaque was moved to an introductory exhibit in the pedestal. No one has described the American dream in a more memorable way:

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?”

* The brazen giant of Greed fame refers to the Colossus of Rhodes, one of the Seven Wonders of the World, a bronze monument to the sun god, destroyed by an earthquake in 226 B.C.

Your comments are welcome.

If a man means to be an historical figure, it is a good idea to impress a literary patron – a Homer, a Virgil, a Boswell, a Longfellow. Odysseus, Aeneas, Samuel Johnson, and Paul Revere were fortunate in this regard. General William Whipple of New Hampshire and Commodore Abraham Whipple of Rhode Island were not. As a result, they have been left out of practically all the history books about the American Revolution. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow put Paul Revere on the Revolutionary map. He even gave us the exact hour at which Paul reached Concord on his “midnight” ride despite the fact Revere says he was captured by the British before he got there.

The Revolutionary accomplishments of the General and the Commodore were among the significant exploits of the struggle for independence. Both joined the struggle early in the contest. Both immediately rose to positions of leadership. Both were recognized by their peers for their outstanding contributions: William for the major role he played in the Continental Congress from 1776 to 1779; Abraham for his unbelievable exploits in the Continental Navy from 1775 to 1780. Unfortunately, historians mostly ignored them.

Though carrying the same surname, they were not related by blood but were related by commitment to the American cause. (William descends from “Elder” John Whipple of Ipswich and Abraham from Capt. John Whipple of Providence). (more…)

President John Calvin Coolidge was born in Plymouth Vt. July 4 1872 and died January 5, 1933 in Northampton, Mass. age 60.  He married Grace Anna Goodhue in Burlington, Vt. October 4, 1905.  Daughter of Andrew Issachar Goodhue and Lemira Barrett, she was born in Burlington January 3, 1879 and died July 8, 1957 in Northampton, age 78.  They are buried in Plymouth.

They are distant cousins.  Their common ancestor was Matthew Whipple, Clothier, of Bocking, England.  Grace descends through his youngest son, “Elder” John of Ipswich, Mass. while Calvin descents through his oldest son, Matthew, Jr. of Ipswich as well as through ”Elder” John, making him a double descendant of Matthew the Clothier.

He earned a B.S. from Amherst College in 1895, read law in the office of Messrs. Hammond &  Field of Northampton, was admitted to the Bar June 29, 1897 and began practice in that city.  He was elected to the Common Council and Vice President of the Northampton Savings Bank in 1898, served as City Solicitor 1899-1902.  Chairman of the Republican County Committee of Hampshire County in 1904, he was defeated as candidate for Northampton Board of Education in 1905, elected to the State house of Representatives in 1906 (two terms), elected Northampton Mayor (1910-11), elected to the State Senate in 1911 (four terms including Senate President (1914-15), elected Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor in 1915 (three terms), and elected Governor in 1919 (two terms).

His firmness and vigorous action as Governor at the time of the Boston Police Strike in the autumn of 1919 gave him a national reputation and he received a few votes for President at the 1920 Republican National Convention in Chicago.  Senator Warren of Ohio won the nomination on the tenth ballot and Coolidge was nominated for Vice President on the first ballot.  They easily won the election November 2 and were inaugurated March 4, 1921.  He was elected President November 4, 1924 (382 electoral votes) defeating Democrat John W. Davis (136 votes) and Progressive Robert M. LaFollette (13 votes). (more…)

Two-hundred-and-thirty-two years after we declared our independence from England in July 1776, the election of Barack Obama erased my long-held conclusion that the U. S. would not elect a person with black ancestry to its highest office in my lifetime.

Our Declaration of Independence said that “. . . all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” (more…)

PRE-PRIMARY

In 1966 as Vice President Hubert Humphrey and Senator Robert Kennedy of New York campaigned for Democratic congressional candidates on college campuses, Humphrey was greeted by hecklers and Kennedy by mobs of squealers and jumpers of all ages. Kennedy was an outspoken critic of President Johnson’s Vietnam policies and had a large base of support. Despite Harris and Gallup polls showing him the preferred candidate over President Lyndon Johnson in 1968, Kennedy repeatedly insisted he would not be a candidate “under any foreseeable circumstances” words he later had to eat.

In the 1966 senatorial race in Oregon, Howard Morgan, a critic of the Vietnam policy, challenged Congressman Robert Duncan who supported it, for the Democratic nomination. Morgan, a member of the Federal Power Commission under President John F. Kennedy and former Chairman of the Oregon Democratic Party, received 34.5 percent of the vote on his single issue campaign. It was the first important campaign involving Vietnam to present an anti administration choice on a state-wide basis. The Morgan vote was an indicator of the deepening anti administration feeling. Duncan won only to be defeated by dove Republican Governor Mark Hatfield. Morgan’s campaign manager, Blaine Whipple, was the Democratic nominee for Congress from Oregon’s First District in 1962 and was one of only 10 congressional candidates that year to be endorsed by the Council to Abolish War, a national organization that supported peace candidates. (more…)

Researchers in the Department of Neurology at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey have determined that some members of the Whipple family suffer from a disease known as Machado-Joseph Disease (MJD). MJD is also known as Spinocerebellar Ataxia 3 (SCA3), so named because it was the third of many such ataxias to be identified. “Ataxia” is a general term referring to lack of muscle control.

Characteristics:
MJD is characterized by clumsiness and weakness in the arms and legs, spasticity (continuous, uncontrollable muscle contractions), a staggering lurching gait (easily mistaken for drunkenness), difficulty with speech and swallowing, involuntary eye movements, double vision, and frequent urination. Some patients have ystonia (sustained muscle contractions that cause twisting of the body and limbs, repetitive movements, abnormal posture, and/or rigidity) or symptoms similar to those of Parkinson’s disease. Others have twitching of the face or tongue, or distinct bulging eyes. Almost all MJD patients experience vision problems, including double vision (diplopia) or blurred vision, loss of ability to distinguish color and/or contrast, and inability to control eye movements. (more…)

          By James Whitcomb Riley 

It`s a mystery to see me–a man o` fifty-four,
Who`s lived a cross old bachelor fer thirty year` and more–
A-lookin` glad and smilin`! And they`s none o` you can say
That you can guess the reason why I feel so good to-day!

I must tell you all about it! But I`ll have to deviate
A little in beginnin`, so`s to set the matter straight
As to how it comes to happen that I never took a wife–
Kindo` “crawfish” from the Present to the Springtime of my life!

I was brought up in the country: Of a family of five–
Three brothers and a sister–I`m the only one alive,–
Fer they all died little babies; and `twas one o` Mother`s ways,
You know, to want a daughter; so she took a girl to raise.

The sweetest little thing she was, with rosy cheeks, and fat–
We was little chunks o` shavers then about as high as that!
But someway we sort a` SUITED-like! and Mother she`d declare
She never laid her eyes on a more lovin` pair Than WE was! So we growed up side by side fer thirteen year`,
And every hour of it she growed to me more dear!–
W`y, even Father`s dyin`, as he did, I do believe
Warn`t more affectin` to me than it was to see her grieve!

I was then a lad o` twenty; and I felt a flash o` pride
In thinkin` all depended on ME now to pervide
Fer Mother and fer Mary; and I went about the place
With sleeves rolled up–and workin`, with a mighty smilin`
face.–

Fer SOMEPIN` ELSE was workin`! but not a word I said
Of a certain sort o` notion that was runnin` through my head,–
“Some day I`d maybe marry, and a BROTHER`S love was one
Thing–a LOVER`S was another!” was the way the notion run!

I remember onc`t in harvest, when the “cradle-in` ” was done,
(When the harvest of my summers mounted up to twenty-one),
I was ridin` home with Mary at the closin` o` the day–
A-chawin` straws and thinkin`, in a lover`s lazy way!

And Mary`s cheeks was burnin` like the sunset down the lane:
I noticed she was thinkin`, too, and ast her to explain.
Well–when she turned and KISSED ME, WITH HER ARMS AROUND
ME–LAW!
I`d a bigger load o` Heaven than I had a load o` straw!

I don`t p`tend to learnin`, but I`ll tell you what`s a fac`,
They`s a mighty truthful sayin` somers in a` almanac–
Er SOMERS–`bout “puore happiness”–perhaps some folks`ll laugh
At the idy–”only lastin` jest two seconds and a half.”–

But it`s jest as true as preachin`!–fer that was a SISTER`S
kiss,
And a sister`s lovin` confidence a-tellin` to me this:–
“SHE was happy, BEIN` PROMISED TO THE SON O` FARMER BROWN.”–
And my feelin`s struck a pardnership with sunset and went down!

I don`t know HOW I acted, and I don`t know WHAT I said,–
Fer my heart seemed jest a-turnin` to an ice-cold lump o` lead;
And the hosses kind o`glimmered before me in the road,
And the lines fell from my fingers–And that was all I knowed–

Fer–well, I don`t know HOW long–They`s a dim rememberence
Of a sound o` snortin` horses, and a stake-and-ridered fence
A-whizzin` past, and wheat-sheaves a-dancin` in the air,
And Mary screamin` “Murder!” and a-runnin` up to where

_I_ was layin` by the roadside, and the wagon upside down
A-leanin` on the gate-post, with the wheels a-whirlin` roun`!
And I tried to raise and meet her, but I couldn`t, with a vague
Sort o` notion comin` to me that I had a broken leg.

Well, the women nussed me through it; but many a time I`d sigh
As I`d keep a-gittin` better instid o` goin` to die,
And wonder what was left ME worth livin` fer below,
When the girl I loved was married to another, don`t you know!

And my thoughts was as rebellious as the folks was good and kind
When Brown and Mary married–Railly must `a` been my MIND
Was kind o` out o` kilter!–fer I hated Brown, you see,
Worse`n PIZEN–and the feller whittled crutches out fer ME–

And done a thousand little ac`s o` kindness and respec`–
And me a-wishin` all the time that I could break his neck!
My relief was like a mourner`s when the funeral is done
When they moved to Illinois in the Fall o` Forty-one.

Then I went to work in airnest–I had nothin` much in view
But to drownd out rickollections–and it kep` me busy, too!
But I slowly thrived and prospered, tel Mother used to say
She expected yit to see me a wealthy man some day.

Then I`d think how little MONEY was, compared to happiness–
And who`d be left to use it when I died I couldn`t guess!
But I`ve still kep` speculatin` and a-gainin` year by year,
Tel I`m payin` half the taxes in the county, mighty near!

Well!–A year ago er better, a letter comes to hand
Astin` how I`d like to dicker fer some Illinois land–
“The feller that had owned it,” it went ahead to state,
“Had jest deceased, insolvent, leavin` chance to speculate,”–

And then it closed by sayin` that I`d “better come and see.”–
I`d never been West, anyhow–a`most too wild fer ME,
I`d allus had a notion; but a lawyer here in town
Said I`d find myself mistakend when I come to look around.

So I bids good-by to Mother, and I jumps aboard the train,
A-thinkin` what I`d bring her when I come back home again–
And ef she`d had an idy what the present was to be,
I think it`s more`n likely she`d `a` went along with me!

Cars is awful tejus ridin`, fer all they go so fast!
But finally they called out my stoppin`-place at last:
And that night, at the tavern, I dreamp` I was a train
O` cars, and SKEERED at somepin`, runnin` down a country lane!

Well, in the morning airly–after huntin` up the man–
The lawyer who was wantin` to swap the piece o` land–
We started fer the country; and I ast the history
Of the farm–its former owner–and so forth, etcetery!

And–well–it was interESTin`–I su`prised him, I suppose,
By the loud and frequent manner in which I blowed my nose!–
But his su`prise was greater, and it made him wonder more,
When I kissed and hugged the widder when she met us at the
door!–

IT WAS MARY: . . . They`s a feelin` a-hidin` down in here–
Of course I can`t explain it, ner ever make it clear.–
It was with us in that meetin`, I don`t want you to fergit!
And it makes me kind o`nervous when I think about it yit!

I BOUGHT that farm, and DEEDED it, afore I left the town
With “title clear to mansions in the skies,” to Mary Brown!
And fu`thermore, I took her and the CHILDERN–fer you see,
They`d never seed their Grandma–and I fetched `em home with me.

So NOW you`ve got an idy why a man o` fifty-four,
Who`s lived a cross old bachelor fer thirty year` and more
Is a-lookin` glad and smilin`!–And I`ve jest come into town
To git a pair o` license fer to MARRY Mary Brown.

    Riley, a native of Indiana (1849-1916),  known as the “Hoosier Poet” and the “Children’s Poet,  wrote verse that tended to be humorous or sentimental and approximately one-half of the thousand poems he wrote were in dialect.  He was a best selling author in the early 1900s and traveled extensively to give public readings.  He never married.