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"Tell You Where the Four Winds Dwell:
In Franklin's Tower There Hangs A Bell!
Ring So Bright Turn Night To Day...
Ring Like Fire lest you lose your way
Robert Hunter 1976
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"And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year,
and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.
It shall be a jubilee unto you."
Leviticus 25:10
All of this makes much more sense to you if you realize that the Tower of Independence Hall was constructed in 1751 specifically to commemorate ("hallow") the "Fiftieth Year" of democratic self-governance by the Pennsylvania Assembly and the adoption of the original Charter of Priveledges in 1701 upon which our Constitution was later based. Benjamin Franklin is credited as the "architect" of this Tower and so can be called "inventor" of it in its entirety and also therefore "inventor" of that very Bell emblazoned "Proclaim Liberty" for the Tower to raise aloft and deliver by Ring.
"November 1, 175x.
"Respected Friend, Robert Charles: The assembly having ordered us (the superintendents of the State House) to procure a bell from England to be purchased for their use, we take the liberty to apply ourselves to thee to get us a good bell, of about two thousand pounds weight, the cost of which we presume may amount to about one hundred pounds sterling, or, perhaps, with the charges, something more. . . . We hope and rely on thy care and assistance in this affair, and that thou wilt procure and forward it by the first good opportunity. . .
"Let the bell be cast by the best workmen, and examined carefully before it is shipped, with the following words well shaped in large letters round it, viz.: '' By order of the Assembly of the Province of Pennsylvania, for the State House in the city of Philadelphia, 1752. "And underneath: '' Proclaim liberty through all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof. Levit. xxv. 10. "As we have experienced thy readiness to serve this province on all occasions, we desire it may be our excuse for this additional trouble from thy assured friends:
"Isaac Norris, Thomas Leech, Edward Warner.
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"Respected Friend, Robert Charles: The assembly having ordered us (the superintendents of the State House) to procure a bell from England to be purchased for their use, we take the liberty to apply ourselves to thee to get us a good bell, of about two thousand pounds weight, the cost of which we presume may amount to about one hundred pounds sterling, or, perhaps, with the charges, something more. . . . We hope and rely on thy care and assistance in this affair, and that thou wilt procure and forward it by the first good opportunity. . .
"Let the bell be cast by the best workmen, and examined carefully before it is shipped, with the following words well shaped in large letters round it, viz.: '' By order of the Assembly of the Province of Pennsylvania, for the State House in the city of Philadelphia, 1752. "And underneath: '' Proclaim liberty through all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof. Levit. xxv. 10. "As we have experienced thy readiness to serve this province on all occasions, we desire it may be our excuse for this additional trouble from thy assured friends:
"Isaac Norris, Thomas Leech, Edward Warner.
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