8
THE CHEMAWA AMERICAN
of liberty. A subscription was then raised to aid the Boston sufferers.
Following the receipt of news of the battle of Lexington on April 24,
1775, the .bell was again1 rung and it was agreed that liberty should be
defended at all costs. It was also rung several times at meetings to
consider the resolution for the independence of the colonies.
Following the adoption of the resolution plans were made for the call
ing of the people for the announcing of the Declaration of Independence.
July 8, 1776, was the date set for, the reading of the proclamation.
The ceremonies proper did not begin until noon but the crowds began
to assemble early in the day. ,
The bell began to toll shortly after 11 o'clock and continued to ring
until the ceremonies proper began. John Nixon read the declaration.
Following which the bell was again rung and then the king's arms were
torn from the walls of the king's court and on the square in lrontof In
dependence Hall they were burned.
On September 26, 1776, the bell called the assembly together for the
last time and on October 24, 1781, it was again rung to announce the
surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown. Then it rang on April 16,
1783, to announce the proclamation of peace. It was rung several times
' later and the last time to mark the death of Chief Justice John Marshall.
During his funeral on July 8, 1835, the bell was being rung when sud
denly it cracked. From then on until this day the huge bell has never
been rung.
The bell is 12 feet in circumference around the lip and seven feet six
inches around the crown. It is three inches thick in the heaviest part
of the lip and one and a quarter inches thick in its thinnest part. The
clapper is three feet two inches long and the weight of the entire bell is
2080 pounds.
After the bell cracked it was abandoned for 11 years, when an attempt
was made to drill out the crack, but it was unsuccessful. Then the
famous bell was put away inside one of the attic rooms of the towrer of
the building and it was not until several years after the Civil war that
the usefulness of the relic was realized.
Plans were finally made for preserving the old bell and it was placed
in the Declaration chamber in a heavy case. It has been suspended
from the original yoke on which it hung during the Revolution. With
the exception of the trips it has made, the bell has never been outside
of the walls of the state house since it was taken to Trenton in Septem
ber, 1777, when it was thought that the British army nearing Philadel
phia would capture it.