of a village or town bell, and of these bells the
one to which we refer was the most important and interesting. Liberty
Bell is well named. It was ordered in the year 1751, and it was
delivered a year later. Shortly afterwards, it cracked, and had to be
recast, but in June, 1753, it was finally hung in the Pennsylvania State
House at Philadelphia. It has never been removed from the building
except on two occasions. The first of these was in 1777, when it was
taken to Allentown for safety, and the second in 1885, when it was
exhibited at New Orleans.

This bell, which sounded the death-blow to tyranny and oppression, was
first rung to call together the Assembly, which immediately resolved to
insist upon certain rights which had been denied the colonists by the
British Crown. Eighteen months later, it was again rung to announce the
meeting at which the rights of the colonists were sternly defined and
insisted upon. In 1765, it convened the meeting of the Assembly at which
it was resolved to be represented at the Congress of the Colonies in New
York, and a month later it was muffled and tolled when the "Royal
Charlotte" arrived, bearing the much hated stamps, whose landing was not
permitted. Again it rang muffled, when the Stamp Act went into
operation, and when the people publicly burned stamp papers. In 1768,
the Liberty Bell called a meeting of the men of Philadelphia, who
protested once again against the oppression of government without
representation. In 1771, it called the Assembly together to petition the
King of England for the repeal of the duty on tea, and two years later
it summoned together the largest crowd ever seen in Philadelphia up to
that date. At that meeting it was resolved that the ship "Polly," loaded
with tea, should not be allowed to land.

In 1774, the bell was muffled and tolled on the closing of the Port of
Boston, and in the following year it convened the memorable meeting
following the battle of Lexington. On this occasion 8,000 people
assembled in the State House yard and unanimously agreed to associate
for the purpose of defending, with arms, their lives, liberty and
property against all attempts to deprive them of them. In June, 1776,
Liberty Bell announced the submission to Congress of the draft of the
Declaration of Independence, and on July 4th of the same year, the same
bell announced the signing of the Declaration. On July 8th of the same
year, the bell was tolled vigorously for the g