The Truth About "The New Colossus"

What is The New Colossus, you wonder? It's a poem on a plaque that is mounted inside the base of the Statue of Liberty. But those words on the infamous plaque:

“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 shores -

Send these, the homeless, tempest tossed to me.
I lift my lamp beside the golden door,”

were not an original part of the Statue of Liberty and were put there as an afterthought because they seemed to fit in with the idea of liberty for all. The poem wasn't written as an inscription for the statue. It was written and donated to an auction of arts and literature to raise money to build a base for the statue.

When France decided to give us the statue in 1886 it was only a statue. The agreement was that America would choose where to put it and build a base for it. Donations weren't going well and Joseph Pulitzer led the drive to raise money for the base.

Emma Lazarus wrote “The New Colossus” and donated it to the cause. Her donation was solicited by one of the fund raising chairmen. She initially refused but another writer convinced her to try.

Her poem was the first one read at the “Art Loan Fund Exhibition in Aid of the Bartholdi Pedestal Fund for the Statue of Liberty” on November 2, 1883, the day the Exhibition opened. It played no further role in the mounting of the statue on the base and was not a part of the dedication ceremony in 1886.

In 1901, a friend of Lazarus who thought the poem and Lazarus should both be immortalized succeeded in getting her poem mounted inside the base of the statue on a bronze plaque in 1903. The poem began to take on the meaning of welcoming immigrants as time went by.

Journalist and historian John T. Cunningham wrote "The Statue of Liberty was not conceived and sculpted as a symbol of immigration, but it quickly became so as immigrant ships passed under the torch and the shining face, heading toward Ellis Island. However, it was Lazarus's poem that permanently stamped on Miss Liberty the role of unofficial greeter of incoming immigrants."

So while the last part of the poem is a perfect narrative for immigration, that was not its original purpose and has only become so as the country progressed.

As for the words:

“Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shores -

Send these, the homeless, tempest tossed to me.
I lift my lamp beside the golden door...”

the United States has lived up to those words for two centuries – sometimes to the detriment of the country.

My last comment will irritate some and please others.

President Trump's proposal for immigration reform is common sense. There is nothing wrong with controlling immigration, limiting numbers of immigrants, vetting each one that comes here and ensuring they will be able to support themselves once they arrive. There is nothing wrong with insuring that immigrants will benefit our country instead of being a drain on our society. Other countries do it.

We've got enough huddled masses, wretched refuse and homeless. We don't need to be importing more.