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James Cox - My Native Land
In the old days of town meetings, training days, town schools and Puritans, bells took a more prominent
part in public affairs than they do to-day. It was usual to call the people together for purposes of
deliberation by means of a village or town bell, and of these bells the one to which we refer was the most
important and interesting. Liberty Bell is well named. It was ordered in the year 1751, and it was
delivered a year later. Shortly afterwards, it cracked, and had to be recast, but in June, 1753, it was
finally hung in the Pennsylvania State House at Philadelphia. It has never been removed from the
building except on two occasions. The first of these was in 1777, when it was taken to Allentown for
safety, and the second in 1885, when it was exhibited at New Orleans.
This bell, which sounded the death-blow to tyranny and oppression, was first rung to call together the
Assembly, which immediately resolved to insist upon certain rights which had been denied the colonists
by the British Crown. Eighteen months later, it was again rung to announce the meeting at which the
rights of the colonists were sternly defined and insisted upon. In 1765, it convened the meeting of the
Assembly at which it was resolved to be represented at the Congress of the Colonies in New York, and a
month later it was muffled and tolled when the "Royal Charlotte" arrived, bearing the much hated
stamps, whose landing was not permitted. Again it rang muffled, when the Stamp Act went into
operation, and when the people publicly burned stamp papers. In 1768, the Liberty Bell called a meeting
of the men of Philadelphia, who protested once again against the oppression of government without
representation. In 1771, it called the Assembly together to petition the King of England for the repeal of
the duty on tea, and two years later it summoned together the largest crowd ever seen in Philadelphia up
to that date. At that meeting it was resolved that the ship "Polly," loaded with tea, should not be allowed
to land.
In 1774, the bell was muffled and tolled on the closing of the Port of Boston, and in the following year it
convened the memorable meeting following the battle of Lexington. On this occasion 8,000 people
assembled in the State House yard and unanimously agreed to associate for the purpose of defending,
with arms, their lives, liberty and property against all attempts to deprive them of them. In June, 1776,
Liberty Bell announced the submission to Congress of the draft of the Declaration of Independence, and
on July 4th of the same year, the same bell announced the signing of the Declaration. On July 8th of the
same year, the bell was tolled vigorously for the great proclamation of America's Independence. The
tolling was suspended while the Declaration was read, and was once more rung when that immortal
document had been thus formally promulgated.
In April, 1783, Liberty Bell rang the proclamation of Peace, and on July 4th, 1826, it ushered in the year
of Jubilee.
The last tolling of the bell was in July, 1835, when, while slowly tolling, and without any apparent
reason, the bell, which had played such an important part in the War of Independence, and in the
securing of liberty for the people of this great country, parted through its side, making a large rent, which
can still be clearly seen. It was as though the bell realized that its great task was accomplished, and that it
could leave to other and younger bells, the minor duties which remained to be performed.
This is not a history of the United States, but is rather a description of some of the most interesting and
remarkable features to be found in various parts of it. It is difficult, however, to describe scenes and
buildings without at least brief historical reference, and as we present an excellent illustration of the
apartment in which the Declaration of Independence was signed, we are compelled to make a brief
reference to the circumstances and events which preceded that most important event in the world's
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