The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1895-11-07
(Judge Russell NJ. Thayer.

(Judge Russell NJ. Thayer.l
Independence Bell, or "The Liberty
Bell" as it is commonly called from
its Revolutionary association, and the
unconscious prophecy placed upon ii
when it was made, is the property Of
the city Of Philadelphia, which acquired
its title to it by a sale made by the
Commonwealth, in 1916, of the State
House and all its grounds, buildings,
and appurteneDces, including the bell,
furniture, and all other property be-
longing to the State House, the whole
being purchased by the city for the sum
of $40, 900. The seat of governmen,
had previously been removed from
Philadelphia to Harrisburg in 1879.
The bell had been made by Pass &
Stow in 1883 for the Provincial As
sembly of Pennsylvania, by whose orders
it was hanging there twenty-three years
afterwards, above the Continental
Congress sitting in the room below,
and rang out joyous peal when the
signing of the Declaration of 1nde-
pendence was announced from the
State House steps.
cannot help remarking here that,
in view of the condition of the coun-
try in 1883, the legend then cast upon
the bell, taken from the Book Of Levitt
icus, and having direct reference to
the Year of Jubilee in the Jewish Com
monwealth, "Proclaim liberty through
out all the land unto all the inhabitants
thereof "seems now, looking back upon
the surroundings of that day, to have
been not only a remarkable coinci-
dence, but also a silent and unvolun-
tary prophecy of coming events. For
it must be remembered that in 1853
the colonies were all reposing conf
IDENTIFY in the lap OF Great Britain. No
whisper of disaffection or disloyalty to
the mother country was anywhere
heard. The only alarms of war which
then arose were occasioned by the
bloody incursions of the French and
Indians upon our borders strife in
which the British soldier and the
American loyalist stood side by side,
incurring the same perils and under
going the same hardships.
The liberty bell had been hanging
two years in the State House steeple
before Braddock's disastrous defeat in
1855, and in the winter of 1856, fol-
lowing that event, Washington, then
commanding the Virginia militia, as
he rode down Chestnut Street on his
memorable midwinter journey from
Mount Vernon to Boston, to confer
there with the commander in chief OF
the British forces in the colonies upon
the military affairs of Virginia, officers
and his family servants, all we'll
mounted and arrayed in handsome
liveries just ordered from London,
heard without doubt its peal of well
come as he passed the State House on
his way 10 his quarters for he was even
at that time, although it was twenty
years before the War of Independence
and he at the age of twenty four the
most popular hero in all the colonies,
fresh from the distinction he had won
in the disastrous campaign against Fort
Duquesne.
The bell, fortunately, is not made
of fine china, but is solid mass of over
two thousand pounds of metal, ard
has endured for nearly one hundred
and fifty years, although several times
sent on such patriotic journeys, the
only injury it ever experienced being
when it was cracked while hanging in
its accustomed place. in the steeple,
and being tolled on July 8, } S35, as
mark of respect to the memory oi
John Marshall, of Virginia, the Chief
Justice of the United States, then lying
dead in Philadelphia. If it was to
become mute forever, it was not an un-
fit occasion for it to become so when
the great Chief Justice-the expoun-
der of the Constitution, the comrade
Of Washington, and the last Of his
intimate puplic friends-lay dead in
the shadow of the steeple where it wai
hanging: !: can never be more mute
than it is now, even if it should make
an annual journey around among the
old Thirteen, stirring up everywhere
as it goes the memories and the pat
riotic impulses which are inseparably
connected with its history, aud which
themselves can never grow mute.
After S,onewall Jackson's death al
Charlottesville, story became cur
rent in the Confederate army which