"Resolved, that Copies of the Declaration be sent to the several assemblies, conventions, and committees or councils of safety, and to the several commanding officers of the Continental troops; that it be proclaimed in each of the United States and at the head of the army."
It was ordered that the Declaration be proclaimed from the State House on Monday, July 8, 1776. On that day the State House bell sounded its glad call; for the first time did it indeed "proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof." And in the hearing of those who gathered in response to its call the Declaration was read.
From that day the State House has been known as Independence Hall, while the State House Yard has become Independence Square.
The sittings of Congress in Independence Hall were interrupted by the approach of the British. For five months the building was used as a British prison and hospital. But on July 2, 1778, Congress returned; the building once more belonged to the nation.
The building became more than ever a national shrine when, in 1787, the Constitutional Convention met there. On September 17, 1787, the votes of eleven States were recorded in favor of the Constitution, and Benjamin Franklin, looking toward a sun which was blazoned on the President's chair, said of it to those near him, "In the vicissitudes of hope and fear I was not able to tell whether it was rising or setting; now I know that it is the rising sun."
In 1790, the Congress of the United States met in the western portion of the buildings on the Square, erected in 1785 for the Pennsylvania Assembly.[1] This building was, by that body, offered to Congress and accepted for the term of ten years, until the Capital should be removed to the shore of the Potomac.
During these ten years, and for thirty-five years more, the Liberty Bell continued to sound notes of joy and of sorrow. On July 8, 1835, it was tolling for Chief Justice Marshall. When the funeral procession was on Chestnut Street, not far from Independence Hall, the bell cracked. Since that day it has been mute.
The passing years have brought many changes to Independence Hall, as well as to the Liberty Bell. The bell cannot be renewed, but the historic building and the Square have been restored until they present essentially the appearance of the days of 1776. The chief difference is in the steeple. The present steeple was built in 1828. It is much like the old steeple, but a story higher.
As the visitor passes from room to room of the venerable building, and examines the relics and studies the portraits of the great men who gathered there so long ago, his heart is stirred to thankfulness to those who dared to call a nation into being, and he cannot but think that it is good to live for one's country.