Historical Monuments & Statues News
The Daily Signal provides coverage of monument removals, preservation efforts, and cultural clashes. Includes conservative commentary and opinion on American history and national identity.
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opinion
Why I Named an International Airport After President Trump
America has a strange habit of waiting until its leaders are gone before deciding they are worthy of honor. We name buildings after them; place their portraits on our walls; and speak about their courage, accomplishments, and place in history; but by the time we do, the person being honored is no longer here to… -
opinion
The Smithsonian’s Patriotism Problem
“Warning: The exhibits in this museum were prepared by people who don’t want you to love your country.” That’s a disclaimer every entrance to the National Museum of American History ought to display, according to a new report by the White House excoriating the Smithsonian Institution and its flagship museum. But it doesn’t take a… -
opinion
America’s Founders Show Us How to Defeat Socialism
Can America survive if the next generation meant to preserve it believes our best days are behind us? As the Daily Signal has worked on a special project for America’s 250th birthday, I’ve been fixating on this question and struggling to answer it. But we might soon know the answer. A recent study from Pew Research found that just… -
opinion
This Is America: Introducing the Heritage Guide to Historic Sites
The following is a lightly edited transcript of a speech delivered on Oct. 27, 2026, at Mount Vernon for an America’s 250th Leaders Reception and Dinner. It is my great pleasure to introduce the Heritage Guide to Historic Sites, the 13 original colonies version. Many of you have probably noticed that exhibits at our nation’s… -
opinion
Is America Collapsing as It Celebrates 250 Years? Why Victor Davis Hanson Is ‘Very Worried’
The following is an excerpt of Daily Signal Politics Editor Bradley Devlin’s interview with Victor Davis Hanson for the “Signal Sitdown,” which premieres on the Daily Signal’s YouTube page at 6:30 a.m. EDT on July 2. Portions of this interview are featured in the Daily Signal’s new documentary “Sacred Honor: The Declaration That Defines a… -
breaking
An Inside Look at Daily Signal Documentary ‘Sacred Honor: The Declaration That Defines a Nation’
The Daily Signal has released a new trailer for its latest documentary titled “Sacred Honor: The Declaration That Defines a Nation.” “Sacred Honor” takes the audience inside the years and months leading up to America’s Declaration of Independence and invites viewers to think like the great statesmen of our Founding. It premieres on the Daily… -
opinion
World Cup Tourists See What Too Many Americans Have Forgotten
Americans are routinely told that our nation is hopelessly divided, irredeemably flawed, and perhaps even in terminal decline. Public polling reflects this pervasive frustration, pessimism, and anomie. If someone halfway around the world only followed the polls, he might be forgiven for believing our republic is all but over. But something remarkable is happening during… -
news
Bradley Devlin Joins ‘The Sean Hannity Show’ to Discuss Daily Signal’s New Documentary
Daily Signal Politics Editor Bradley Devlin joined “The Sean Hannity Show,” hosted by Jason Chaffetz, on June 26 to discuss the Daily Signal’s new documentary titled Sacred Honor: The Declaration That Defines a Nation.” “Sacred Honor: The Declaration That Defines a Nation” premieres on the Daily Signal’s YouTube on July 2, 2026. The following radio… -
opinion
250 Years Later, Charleston Celebrates Carolina Day
As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, Charleston, South Carolina, marks the 250th anniversary of Carolina Day on June 28, 2026. This day commemorates the American victory at the Battle of Sullivan’s Island, the first major Revolutionary War success in South Carolina. The triumph boosted patriot morale, rallied support for independence, and helped pave the way… -
opinion
Liberty or Force? John Quincy Adams on American Foreign Policy
John Quincy Adams’ 1821 Fourth of July address has had a long legacy. It has become a touchstone in debates about foreign policy to this day, thanks to Adams’ ringing assertion that America “goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy.” Adams was the U.S. secretary of state at the time, and he would soon help President James Monroe… -
analysis
Why Eisenhower Believed ‘Under God’ Was Vital to America’s Identity and Victory in the Cold War
It was both a spiritual and strategic move when President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a bill adding the words “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance. “From this day forward, the millions of our schoolchildren will daily proclaim in every city and town, every village and rural schoolhouse, the dedication of our nation and our… -
analysis
How Culture War of Andrew Johnson’s Senate Trial Resonated in Clinton, Trump Impeachments
As the first presidential impeachment trial was drawing to a close, newspaper titan Horace Greeley’s New York Tribune ran a bold headline: “CONVICTION ALMOST A CERTAINTY.” If by “certainty” the paper meant falling one vote short of the two-thirds needed to remove President Andrew Johnson, the headline proved accurate. On May 26, 1868, Johnson slipped… -
opinion
America’s Love Affair With the Road Endures
BEDFORD, Pennsylvania—For the briefest of moments, a line of vintage Rolls-Royce automobiles chugged along the curving Cumberland Road. They passed over the Cumberland Run a handful of times and wound themselves down the mountains, away from Pennsylvania and toward the city of steeples, Cumberland. The sight gives the bystander a moment to imagine what it… -
opinion
How George Washington’s Farewell Address Fulfilled the Declaration of Independence
Welcome to the first in our series, Landmark Speeches in American History. Over the next several months, we will celebrate America’s 250th anniversary with articles by prominent authors about how some of the greatest speeches in our history—by celebrated orators like Ronald Reagan, Abraham Lincoln, and Martin Luther King Jr.—honored the vision of our founding… -
opinion
Getting Back to Business: The Buttonwood Agreement on the Eve of America’s 250th Birthday
This week marks the anniversary of one of the most consequential yet least celebrated moments in American economic history. On May 17, 1792, 24 merchants, brokers, and auctioneers gathered at 68 Wall Street in New York and signed a concise, two-sentence agreement under a buttonwood tree. In plain language, they pledged to trade public stocks… -
opinion
The Perfect Children’s Book for America 250
As our nation marks the 250th anniversary of its independence, we are offered many occasions to commemorate, debate, and reassess. What “The American Book of Fables,” written by Matthew Mehan and illustrated by John Folley, offers is something different and more lasting: the chance to remember and to love. Not with passing sweetness, but with the… -
opinion
Biden Undermines Law by Invoking This to Create National Monuments
Since 2022, President Joe Biden has used the Antiquities Act to create five national monuments, collectively spanning more than 1.5 million acres of federal land. While these proclamations are ostensibly aimed at preserving areas of historic or archaeological importance, they often come at the expense of established laws and local economies. The American Forest Resource Council has… -
news
Mellon Foundation’s Monuments Project Pledges $250M for ‘Reimagining’ Statuary, Public Spaces
One of America’s largest philanthropic organizations, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, has announced a commitment to invest $250 million in what it calls the “reimagining” of public spaces and monuments across the country. The Mellon Foundation’s Monuments Project, it announced earlier this month, will support efforts to reshape and “recontextualize” America’s public spaces to provide… -
opinion
Cancel Culture Comes for America’s National Monuments
The nation’s monuments are under fire from the progressive left. A new report commissioned by D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser recommends that the federal government “remove, relocate, or contextualize” the Washington Monument, the Jefferson Memorial, and six other statues and monuments. Jarrett Stepman, a contributor to The Daily Signal and author of “The War on History:… -
opinion
The Mayor, the Monuments, and the Mayhem
When D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser earlier this year created an advisory group to scrutinize the city’s monuments, memorials, and facilities for their “disqualifying histories,” the outcome of its feverish deliberations was utterly predictable: It would launch an assault on the most cherished and unifying symbols of American democracy. Like the militant Jacobins of revolutionary France,…