A SHORT HISTORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL.--In 1751 the Pennsylvania
Assembly authorized a committee to procure a bell for their State
House. November 1st of that year an order was sent to London for "a
good bell of about 2,000 pounds weight." To this order were added the
following directions: "Let the bell be cast by the best workmen and
examined carefully before it is shipped, with the following words well
shaped in large letters around it, viz.: 'By order of the Assembly
of the Province of Pennsylvania, for the State House, in the city of
Philadelphia, 1752.' And underneath, 'Proclaim Liberty Through All the
Land Unto All the Inhabitants Thereof.--Levit. xxv. 10.'" In due time,
in the following year, the bell reached Philadelphia, but when it was
hung, early in 1753, as it was being first rung to test the sound, it
cracked without any apparent reason, and it was necessary to have it
recast. It was at first thought to be necessary to send it back to
England for the purpose, but some "ingenious workmen" in Philadelphia
wished to do the casting and were allowed to do so. In the first week
of June, 1753, the bell was again hung in the belfry of the State
House. On July 4, 1776, it was known throughout the city that the
final decision on the question of declaring the colonies independent
of Great Britain was to be made by the Continental Congress, in
session at the State House. Accordingly the old bellman had been
stationed in the belfry on that morning, with orders to ring the bell
when a boy waiting at the door of the State House below should signal
to him that the bill for independence had been passed. Hour after
hour the old man stood at his post. At last, at 2 o'clock, when he had
about concluded that the question would not be decided on that day at
least, the watchman heard a shout from below, and looking down saw
the boy at the door clapping his hands and calling at the top of his
voice: "Ring! ring!" And he did ring, the story goes, for two whole