The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1904-06-03

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meeting when resolutions were passed
denouncing the buyers and vendors OF tea
as enemies to their country.
On June l, l774, when the port OF Bos-
ton was closed, the bell was muffled and
tolled. On June Is, that same year, the
bell called another town meeting in the
state house square, when the people
pledged the city of Philadelphia to the
common cause of liberty.
The first tidings of the Battle of Lex
ington reached Philadelphia April "a,
IT'S. The following day the bell called
a public meeting, and record says that
5000 people assembled at the state house
and pledged themselves to associate Tor
the purpose of defending themselves
with arms, their lives, liberty and prop
erty, against all attempts to deprive
them of them.
The following year was a memorable
one, for it witnessed the birth of the
United States. On May 10, l775, the
second congress began its sessions in the
state house. On May 7, l776, Richard
Henry Lee offered his resolution for the
independence of the colonies. On June
II, l776, declaration of the deputies of
Pennsylvania, expressing their willing
ness to concur in a vote of the colonies,
declaring the colonies free and independ-
ent states, was read before congress.
On June %, l776, the draft of the Dec
laration of Independence was submitted
to congress, which was adopted the eve
ming of July 5, l776. Copies of the Dec
laration were sent by congress to the
commanding officers of the Continental
troops, and to all the countries of the
province.
On July s, 1776, at noon, the bell was
rung for proclamation of independence,
the place selected being in the rear of
the state house. On Sept. 26, that same
year, the bell, then truly the Liberty
bell, called together for the last time
the members of the assembly of the
Province of Pennsylvania, which party
then dissolved.
On April l6, 1888, the bell rang the
proclamation of peace, and from that day
to the present time it has always been
known as the Liberty bell. From that
date until it was silenced in 1885, it pro-
claimed the national anniversary, usher
ed in the new year, welcomed distin-
guished men, and tolled for the noble
dead. On Lafayette's visit to, the Hall
of Independence, wherein the Declaration
was signed, the bell rang welcome. On
July 5, 1927, the fifth year of independ-
ence, the bell was rung in commemora-
ton, and also, on that same day, it tolled
the deaths of Thomas Jefferson and John
Adams.
July s. 1885, is the date of the BELLS
last tolling. On that day the body of
John Marshall, who was chief justice
of the United States supreme court, was
being conveyed to, Virginia for burial,
and the bell was being tolled during the
funeral services. 4 Suddenly, and with
out any violence, during the tolling, the
bell cracked. John Marshall was one of
the greatest men of the Revolutionary
times, and he was, the last of those who
were associated with Washington and
the signers of the Declaration of indie
pendence. His death, on July 6, 1885, in
Philadelphia, brought to a close the Re-
evolutionary period of the history of the
United States. .,Es@1,sz,.
As the mission of the bell was to ''Pro-
claim Liberty throughout all the land,
unto all the inhabitants thereof" the
crack which developed while tolling on
that memorable day can be looked upon
as a fitting climax of the early history
of our country. =