Wednesday was a Semiquincentennial day. Steven, Samuel and I got to see "the room where it happened." That is, the assembly room in Independence Hall where the Declaration of Independence was signed almost 250 years ago. To see this room, you have to go on a short park ranger tour, requiring a reservation snapped up at 5 pm on the dot the day before. Samuel has quick fingers, and snagged us a 2:20 time slot to see Independence Hall. I later learned the Hall was renamed "Independence" and refurbished in advance of Marquis de Lafayette's triumphant return to America in 1824. But in 1776, it was just the Pennsylvania State House. Trouble had been brewing with King George III for some time, and war between the colonies and England had erupted in April 1775. Delegates from the 13 colonies were in a panic. After King George rebuffed a few attempts at reconciliation, it was time to declare a split.
The "room where it happened" has been furnished with period furniture that is not original to the room. Except, except, the large chair at the front of the room. This is where George Washington sat well after the American Revolution ended. Why no other original furniture? Because just a year later, the British had invaded Philadelphia and commandered the room, burning all the furniture. (Delegates of course had fled the scene well before this happened.)
After also seeing the adjacent court room, called by our park ranger the "Orange Room," (yes, it's original color) we headed next door to Congress Hall. (Once you have your reservation for Independence Hall you enter the "security perimeter" and can visit other historic buildings within.)
Congress Hall housed the nascent Senate and House. Our energetic park ranger told us the whole story of politics back then (not so different from today - the press of the time accused George Washington of actually being a spy for the British!). We tromped up stairs to the very green room where the Senate assembled, and saw various meeting rooms, adorned with portraits of French nobility (the French after all helped us win the war).
Then on to the unexpected pleasure of the American Philosophical Society (APS) Museum. The APS was formed by Benjamin Franklin to further scientific study. Its headquarters is now a small museum displaying original prints of the Declaration of Independence.
After decades off display, for America's 250th Anniversary, Thomas Jefferson's edited draft ("fair copy") of the Declaration was on display. Barely legible, the ink Jefferson used is rotting the paper, and as it is displayed to the public, it is disintegrating before our eyes. I felt so privileged to see it with my own eyes. Jefferson's original version of the Declaration is much longer; it was cut by nearly a quarter, including Jefferson's tirade against slavery, "this ecrexable commerce," this piratical warfare," "a market where MEN should be bought and sold..."
John Dunlap of Philadelphia was able to print the Declaration as a single sheet on July 4th, the day the declaration was actually signed. This was the version read in public squares. Jacob Mordecai, who was there to hear it read, remarked, "The general impression which it produced was that of mixed joy and gloom." Neither copy had the signatures we have come to connect with the document. Next to that is one of 26 surviving copies of the Declaration distributed on Saturday July 6, 1776 in the
Pennsylvania Evening Post. Price was "two coppers." The signed copy was kept safe as the official version, but not easily reproducible at the time.
This ended our loop within the "security perimeter," and we walked down the park to the modern building that holds the Liberty Bell. When we first arrived at Independence Park, the line was out the door, crowded with children on school break. But late in the afteroon we were able to waltz right in (after a security check of course). The history of the Liberty Bell, and its crack, is told in great detail. The bottom line is once that it cracked, it couldn't be repaired. Now it gets its own building. Just before we saw the bell, we listened to a fascinating presentation about Marquis de Lafayette, one of France's wealthiest men who came to America at the age of 19 to see if he could be a warrior. He was told the Americans would make him a general, and indeed that happened. He started off as George Washington's secretary at Valley Forge and rose up the ranks from there.
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