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.
-
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,… -
opinion
Monuments Are Only the Start of Radical Left’s War on Western Values
The radical left has hijacked debate over America’s monuments to wage a cultural war. Their goal: to deny the moral legitimacy of our democratic republic. Violent attacks on statues and memorials aren’t mere vandalism. They are an assault on the United States itself and the values upon which this great nation stands. We should all stand united as Americans in the defense of our heritage,… -
news
White House Chief of Staff Speaks Out Against Civil War Monuments Removal
White House chief of staff John Kelly condemned the removal of Civil War monuments as “dangerous” and referred to Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee as an “honorable man” on the Monday night debut of “The Ingraham Angle.” Chief of Staff John Kelly praises Robert E Lee as "honorable man," says "lack of an ability to… -
opinion
Here Are 8 Monuments That Have Been Attacked Since Charlottesville
Since the awful riot that took place at the base of a Gen. Robert E. Lee statue in Charlottesville, Virginia, earlier this month, activists and vandals have responded throughout the country by looking for 100-year-old monuments to destroy. While it may be bad enough to strip down history, the process should rightly remain in the… -
news
Obama Celebrates His Newest Monuments by Tweeting out Pictures of the Wrong National Park
The White House took to Twitter Wednesday to promote President Barack Obama’s latest monument designations in the Western U.S., but its tweet had a picture of a completely different national park. Obama created the Bears Ears and Gold Butte national monuments, but it’s Wednesday tweet included a picture of the Three Gossips at Arches National… -
news
Fearing Late Action by Obama, Republicans Consider Curbing Presidential Power to Declare National Monuments
President Barack Obama is using his executive power to issue a broad swath of environmental protections during his last weeks in office, guarding himself against a successor who has vowed to roll back parts of that agenda. As part of this effort, Obama has made historic use of a 110-year-old law signed by Theodore Roosevelt…