The Liberty Bell got its name
from being rung JULY 8, 1776, to call the citizens of Philadelphia
together to hear the Declaration of Independence read out loud for the
first time.
The Liberty Bell, weighing over 2,000 pounds, was cast in England in August of 1752.
The
Pennsylvania Assembly ordered it to commemorate the 50th anniversary of
William Penn founding the Colony in 1701, writing his
Charter of Privileges.
In 1751, the colony's Assembly declared a "Year of Jubilee" and commissioned a bell to be put in the Philadelphia State House.
Isaac Norris, Speaker of Pennsylvania's Assembly, read Leviticus chapter 25 verse 10:
"And
ye shall make hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout
all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof; it shall be a jubilee."
Inscribed on the Liberty Bell is:
"Proclaim Liberty throughout the land unto all the inhabitants thereof."
During
the Revolution, as the British were invading Philadelphia in 1777, the
Liberty Bell was rushed out of the city to prevent it from being melted
down into musket balls.
The
Liberty Bell was hid in Zion Reformed Church in Allentown till the
British departed Philadelphia and it was returned in June of 1778.
The Liberty Bell was rung every anniversary of the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence.
The Liberty Bell reportedly cracked JULY 8, 1835, while being rung at the funeral of Chief Justice John Marshall.
John Marshall was the longest-serving Chief Justice who
increased the power of the Supreme Court
by using an expansive reading of the enumerated powers, thereby
establishing the supremacy of the Supreme Court through "judicial
review."
At the 150th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, 1926, President Calvin Coolidge stated:
"People at home and abroad consider Independence Hall as hallowed ground and
revere the Liberty Bell as a sacred relic.
That pile of bricks and mortar, that mass of metal, might appear as only the outgrown meeting place and the shattered bell...
But to those who know, they have become consecrated.
They are the framework of a spiritual event." Coolidge concluded:
"The world looks upon them because of their associations of 150 years ago, as it looks upon the
Holy Land because of what took place there nineteen hundred years ago."
Watch
Faith in History
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