In part, this prayer was as follows:
"Be thou present, O God of wisdom! And direct the councils of this honorable assembly, enable them to settle things on the best and surest foundation, that the scene of blood may be speedily closed, that order, harmony, and peace may be effectually restored, and truth and justice, religion and piety, prevail and flourish amongst Thy people."
On October 26 the Congress was dissolved. The second Congress was called to meet on May 10, 1775, at the State House, later known as Independence Hall.
When the British took possession of the city in 1777, a portion of the army was quartered in the building. Officers and men alike borrowed books from the Library Company of Philadelphia, which had quarters here, invariably making deposits and paying for the use of volumes taken in strict accordance with the rules.
In 1778 the United States Commissary of Military Stores began to occupy the lower story and cellar of the building. From 1791 to 1821 various public organizations sought quarters here, including the Bank of the United States, the Bank of Pennsylvania, the United States Land Office, and the United States Custom House. The Carpenters' Company therefore, in 1791, erected a second building on this lot, which they occupied until 1857.
When Benson J. Lossing visited the historic hall, on November 27, 1848, he wrote of his great disappointment because the banner of an auctioneer was on the front of the building. He said:
"I tried hard to perceive the apparition ... to be a classic frieze, with rich historic trigliphs, but it would not do.... What a desecration! Covering the façade of the very Temple of Freedom with the placards of grovelling Mammon! If sensibility is shocked with this outward pollution, it is overwhelmed with indignant shame on entering the hall where that august Assembly of men—the godfathers of our Republic—convened to stand as sponsors at the baptism of infant American liberty—to find it filled with every species of merchandise, and the walls which once echoed the eloquent words of Henry, Lee, and the Adamses, reverberating with the clatter of the auctioneer's voice and hammer. Is there not patriotism strong enough in Philadelphia to enter the temple, and 'cast out all them that buy and sell, and overthrow the tables of the money-changers?'"
At length the Carpenters' Company decided that the time had come to do what the historian pleaded for. In 1857 they returned to the building, and since then they have held their meetings within the walls consecrated by the heroes of Revolutionary days. The rooms were restored to their original condition, and relics and mementoes of early days were put in place. The Hall has ever since been open to visitors "who may wish to visit the spot where Henry, Hancock, and Adams inspired the delegates of the Colonies with nerve and the sinew for the toils of war."
