“Proclaim LIBERTY Throughout all the Land unto all the Inhabitants Thereof” are the ancient words of scripture inscribed on the bell that once hung in the tower of the Pennsylvania State House. For almost a quarter of a century, the tocsin summoned legislators into session and alerted Philadelphians to public meetings before calling delegates to the Continental Congress to gather and then ring out for the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence. The State House Bell, first announcing a new constellation of thirteen stars among the universe of nations, became known as the Independence Bell and later as an anti-slavery icon the Liberty Bell, its clanging tones symbolically reverberating across the decades and centuries in protest to injustice asserting the self-evident truths that ALL PEOPLE “are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”
After years of service, the Liberty Bell fell silent when it developed a large crack and the revered relic of American Independence was placed on an ornate pedestal for display in the Declaration Chamber of Independence Hall, later being hung from the ceiling of the chamber. The public came to hold a special connection to the artifact following popular stories of the Revolution relating to a tale of the ringing of the bell at the time of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. Nine out of every ten visitors to the 1876 Centennial Exposition dropped by Independence Hall to see the Liberty Bell and items bearing its image or small replicas of it were sought-after souvenirs.
Following America’s one-hundredth birthday celebration, public devotion to the Liberty Bell increased. In 1885 the sacred relic of the Revolution was shown at the World Cotton Centennial Exposition in New Orleans. The bell was ceremonially taken from Independence Hall, “swung in a polished oak yoke” on an open railroad flatcar “so it can be seen by the people of all the towns through which it passes,” and left Philadelphia under guard. The route took the Liberty Bell through major cities — Pittsburg, Columbus and Cincinnati, Louisville, Nashville, Birmingham, Montgomery, and Mobile — where it was viewed by tens of thousands before arriving in New Orleans. After a six-month sojourn in the Crescent City, the historic symbol of freedom returned to its home in the City of Brotherly Love.
Eight years later, the Liberty Bell departed Philadelphia for the Columbian Exposition in Chicago, with all the pomp and ceremony due to the historic icon. Mounted on an open railroad flat car specially built by the Pennsylvania Railroad, the Bell of Freedom began its journey on April 25. Three days later, it arrived in Indianapolis at dawn to a thirteen-gun salute and a welcoming ovation of a crowd of hundreds gathered at Union Station. Later that morning, a mass of people surged around the railcar to get a glimpse of the Tongue of Freedom, passing personal items of every description to the guards to have rubbed on the sacred icon. Fifteen thousand flag waving school children joined thousands of other citizens in front of the State Capitol to hear formal remarks from former President Benjamin Harrison before the historic symbol left for Chicago.
The Liberty Bell would leave Independence Hall in 1895 for the Cotton States and International Exposition in Atlanta, Georgia; in 1902 for the Inter-State and West Indian Exposition in Charleston, South Carolina; and in 1903 for the Bunker Hill Day Celebration in Boston, Massachusetts. Each of these trips, as did its prior journeys, stressed the fabric of the bell. Pieces of the metal from around the rim had been surreptitiously chipped off for souvenirs and, of more concern, a 17-inch hairline crack had formed extending across the crown through the word “Liberty.” Despite these grave structural issues, the Bell of Freedom made two more cross-country trips.
On June 3, 1904, the Liberty Bell began its sixth trip outside of Philadelphia on a special train to the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis where it was displayed in the Pennsylvania building for five months. On the historic relic’s return to Independence Hall, the train carrying it arrived in Indianapolis the evening of November 17, and the flatcar with the Liberty Bell was switched onto the city’s trolley tracks for a parade through downtown streets. An estimated 100,000 cheering people lined the route as the symbol of freedom on its railcar decorated with red, white and blue lights made its way to the Traction Terminal Train Shed where several thousand people viewed freedom’s voice. The following morning, thousands of children saw the Liberty Bell, some being hoisted up to the platform to touch and kiss it in the spirit of patriotism, before the flatcar and its honored cargo returned through the streets to be reunited with the special train to continue the journey home.
Eleven years later the Bell of the Revolution left the City of Brotherly Love on July 5, 1915, for the Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco, its last journey. On the bell’s homeward trip, the special train once again stopped in Indianapolis on the evening of November 21. A flag waving crowd of tens of thousands braved the breezy cold to see the national relic, mounted on a flatcar decorated with flags, flowers, and lights, slowly roll along trolley tracks down Washington St. from West to East Streets and return, with stops in front of the Statehouse and Courthouse where more than 1,000 school children sang “America.” In the morning, the Liberty Bell resumed its travels to Independence Hall.
In 1950, to promote the sale of United States Savings Bonds, the Treasury Department had replicas of the Liberty Bell made without the infamous crack. These daughters of the historic national treasure were distributed to each state capital and in May a Liberty Bell replica on Monument Circle, together with the pealing of nearby church bells, rang out the launch of the Independence Savings Bond Drive in Indiana. After a tour of thirty-five cities and towns, the bell was placed on display at the Statehouse. It later was removed to the Indiana World War Memorial.
Today, the Liberty Bell is on display in the Liberty Bell Center across the street from Independence Hall in Philadelphia. When one of my grandsons saw the Liberty Bell when he was 10 years old, he said he thought it would be bigger than it was. While the physical size of the Liberty Bell may not have impressed a child, symbolically the enormity of its message of LIBERTY has transformed a nation and has inspired people across the globe seeking to be free from injustice.
