The earliest monument in the United States of America to suffer an iconoclastic gesture was an equestrian statue of King George III. “The statue was one-third larger than life, and in New York it stood on a marble pedestal eighteen-feet-high.” Made by Joseph Wilton, it was cast in lead and gilded in gold leaf. The statue was originally located in Bowling Green Park in New York City in 1770, then one of the 13 original colonies. In 1776 after the declaration of independence was read in New York, a group of patriots pulled the statue down, and melted it to make 4,2088 bullets to fight the British. They are quoted as saying, “the lead wherewith this monument was made, is to be run into bullets, to assimilate with the brain of our infatuated adversaries, who, to gain a peppercorn, have lost an empire.”. . .