The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1915-07-02
STORY OF THE HISTORIC
LIBERTY BELL OF
PHILADELPHIA

Inc historic Liberty Bell will be
in Caldwell, July IL, accompanied by
joint special committee of the city
of Philadelphia. The committee con
sists of Charles Seger, chairman; Elias
Abrams, DR.. William D. Bacon, Vim
]. Crawford, George D'Autrechv
Louis HUT, James E. Lennon. -John
J: Mckinley, Jr., Sheldon Potter,
Harry J. Trainer, James Willard of
the Select Council; and George Nc
Curdy, president; Pringle Borthwick.
John P. Connolly, Joseph P. Gaffney'
DR.. f. B. Gleason, Charles F, KELLEY
DR.. John H. Lock, Bernard + Nc.
Guigan, Fred Schwartz, Jere H. Shaw,
Robert Smith, Frank B. Stockley, DR..
w. w. Trinkle, of the Common Coun-
Gil, Mayor Brandenburg and other
functionaries.
The Liberty Bells Part in History.
And proclaim Liberty through
out all the land, unto all the in
habitants thereof; it shall be a
jubilee unto you"
Love and reverence for the Liberty
Bell have, of truth, been evidenced
during only comparatively few of
the later years of the Bells existence.
In its early days it was merely plain
bell-ahd, regarded as bell merely.
was not considered very good one. Its
authentic history is brief Annals and
legends have been woven to amplify
facts. Yet the dry records made in
the days when the Nation was in its
formative period weave themselves, in
the light of present-day affection for
the relic, into story which thrills all
Americans.
In Philadelphia, seat of government
of the British Crown Province of
Pennsylvania, the Assembly had been
contemplating, as the mid years of the
eighteenth century were passing, a
building for its regular meeting place.
In 1872 it had duly set forth that was
"uncommodious as we'll as dishonor-
able for the General Assembly of the
province to be obliged annually to hire
some private house to meet and sit
in" and so it was determined to have
an assembly building. In due course
it was completed, and as the years
passed it was further determined that
disinctively Assembly bell should be
provided to supplant the ordinary bell
brought from the mother country. And
SO, with little thought that history
which all the world would read was
being made-that a bell was about to
be provided whose peals would sound
round the globe-and yet with pro-
phetic vision of the legislators ordered
in l75l that bell should be cast in Eng
land and that it should have round
it words from the Book of Leviticus.
Robert Charles was the agent in Lon
don of the Province and to him under
date of November l, 1851, this letter
was sent:
Respected Friend, Robert Charles:
THE Assembly having ordered us
(the Superintendent of the State
House, to procure a bell from Eng
land ito be purchased for their use, we
take the liberty to apply ourselves to
thee to get us a good bell, of about
two thousand pounds weight, the cost
of which we presume may amount to
or perhaps with the charges something
more.
1--WE hope and rely on thy care and
assistance in this affair. and that thou
wilt procure and forward it by the
first good opportunity as our workmen
inform us, it will be much less trouble
to hang the bell before their scaffolds
are struck from the building where we
intended to place it, which will not be
done till the end of next summer or
beginning of the fall
Let the bell be cast by the best
workmen, and examined carefully be-
fore it is shipped, with the following
words, we'll shapen in large letters
round it, viz:
"'By order Of the Assembly of the
Province of PENNSYLVANIA for the
State House in the City of Philadel-
phia, 1882
"And underneath:
Proclaim Liberty through all the
land to all the inhabitants thereof.
Levitt. XIV, L.
"As we have experienced thy readi-
ness to serve this province on all oc-
casions, we desire it may be our ex-
cuse for this additional trouble, from
thy assured friends.
ISAAC NORRIS,
THOMAS LEECH,
EDWARD WARNER.
LET the package for transportation
be examined with particular care and
the full value insured thereon.
Friend Charles commissioned
Thomas Lister, of Whitcchapel, to
cast the bell which had been ordered.
The model decided upon was Great
Tom" of Westminster, which Henry
III, had cast and hung in the clock
tower as a memorial to Edward the
Confessor.
The commission duly was executed.
but, fortunately, not well, 1t was
forordained that the bell, afterward
to become famous as the Liberty Bell,
should be essentially American, not
English. However, when Captain
Buddeu steered his good ship: the
Matilda" or "Myrtilla." up the Dele
ware in August. 1852, his arrival be-
ing greeted by the pealing of the
chimes in the tower of Christ Church
still standing-chimes, too, which he
had brought across the sea on pre-
vious voyage-the new bell for the
Assembly was aboard. Under date OF
September |, 1852, Superintendent