The Western news. [volume] (Libby, Mont.) 1933-current, 1935-06-27

s ossns ~ United Colonies are. and of RICH,
hnnnnIIH ought TO be. free and independent
yQlypl states, &C. ~, q. p,,,.,,,,,. >, n.
dependence. rewritten from the Lee
resolution by Thomas Jefferson. aided by Ben
1amin Franklin and John Adams was formally
adopted by the congress-
On July the ringing Of bell summoned the
citizens of Philadelphia to the state house yard
TO hear an important announcement read. When
they had assembled Col John Nixon assembled
TO crude platform, built in the yard by the
Philosophical society In 1860 for astronomical
observations and left standing there for occa-
sional use rs public rostrum
moment later his voice doomed out the OPEN
ing words Of an immortal document-"When In
the course of human events, 1t becomes neces-
. sary for one people to dissolve the political
bonds which have connected them with another,
ana TO assume among the powers Of the earth
The separate and equal station to which the
laws of nature and Of natures God entite them,
a decent respect to the opinions of mankind
requires that they should declare the causes
which impe them to the separation
The bell which had summoned The people to
hear this document had been known hereto
fore as the Province bell. Here Iii brief. was its
history up to that historic moment
Cast by Thomas Lester Tor Lister) nf White
chapel, London, upon order Of the pennsyl-
ania assembly, 1t arrived in Philadelphia In
August, 1852. But, to the dismay Of the provln.
clal authorities the bell proved defective AMI
1t had to be recast twice BY two ingenious work
men, John Pass and Charles Stow, Jr In re-
casting the bell they substituted their own
names for that Of the original English maker
and also changed the date on the bell from
lio2 to 1913. But more important was the fact
that the Inscription, composed by Isaac Norris,
chairman of the superintendent of the state
house, retained on It. 1t was from the
Bible Levticus XXV, 1O.-'procaim liberty
throughout all the land to all the inhabitants
thereof"
Prophetic of the role 1t was to play In the
struggle for liberty were such occasions, when
1t was rung as these:
1t first sounded on the afternoon OF August
n, 1913, to call the provincial assembly To-
gether and in that session the assembly resolved
to make and continue the use Of Province money
contrary to the orders of the lords Justices of
the crown.
On February 3, 1i57, 1t called the assembly
together again when they directed ''Mr. Frank
lin to go home to England" to ask for redress
of colonial grievances
On October s. 17G5, 1t was mufTled and tolled
when the ship Royal Charlotte bearing the
hated stamps for Pennsylvania, New Jersey aud
Delaware came up the river under convoy of
royal British warship and it summoned the
citizens TO town meeting where they resolved
not to permit the stamps to be landed
On September y, ITO, 1t assembled the peo-
pie In the state house yard and they there re-
solved that the claims Of parliament to tax the
colonies trespassed upon their constitutional
rights, that the union of the colonies ought to be
maintained and that anyone who imported Eng
lish goods into Philadelphia, contrary to these
resolutions, was an enemy to the peace and
good order of the city.
On June l, It'll. the bell was muffled and
tolled again in sympathy with the people of
Boston on the closing Of their port by the
crown authorities.
On April % lT15, after the news of the Battle
OF Lexington had been received the bell called
ton and they unanimously agreed ito associate
Tor the purpose Of defending with arms their
lives, liberty and property against all attempts
to deprive them Of them"
Thus In the clear notes OF this famous old
bell can be TRACED the successive steps leading
up to that historic day, July s, 1T7G when the
bell rang out once more-loudy, joyously-
'pr0claimng liberty throughout all the land
unto ali the inhabitants thereof" Before this
time it had been the Province bell From that
time on, forever 1t was tile Liberty Bell.
On September II, 1I7I Gen George Washing
ton and his 1900 Continenals were defeated
by General Howe and his $4,000 British at the
Battle of Brandywine. In Washngton's army
was a young yirginian named John Marshall the
son of Col Thomas Marshall who before the
Revolution opened had foreseen the coming OF