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State-house, that the Continental Congress governing the thirteen revolted colonies met during the American Revolution, excepting when driven out upon the British capture, after the battle of the Brandywine. The Declaration of Independence was adopted here July 4, 1776. The old brick building, two stories high, plainly built, and lighted by large windows, was begun in 1732, taking three years to construct, having cost what was a large sum in those days, £5600, the population then being about ten thousand. It was the Government House of Penn's Province of Pennsylvania. There has recently been a complete restoration, by which it has been put back into the actual condition at the time Independence was declared. In the central corridor stands the
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Independence bell, the most sacred relic in the city. This Liberty bell, originally cast in England, hung in the steeple, and rang out in joyous peals the news of the signing of the Declaration. Running around its top is the significant inscription:
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Proclaim Liberty throughout the Land unto all the Inhabitants Thereof. This bell was cracked while being rung on one of the anniversaries about sixty years ago. In the upper story of the Hall, Washington delivered his
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Farewell Address in closing his term of office as President. The eastern room of the lower story is where the Revolutionary Congress met, and it is preserved as then, the old tables, chairs and other furniture having been gathered together, and portraits of the Signers of the Declaration hang on the walls. The old floor, being worn out, was replaced with tiles, but otherwise the room, which is about forty feet square, is as nearly as possible in its original condition. Here are kept the famous
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Rattlesnake flags, with the motto
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Don't Tread on Me, that were the earliest flags of America, preceding the Stars and Stripes. Of the deliberations of the Congress which met in this building, William Pitt wrote:
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I must declare that in all my reading and observation, for solidity of reasoning, force of sagacity, and wisdom of conclusion, under such a complication of difficult circumstances, no body of men could stand before the National Congress of Philadelphia. In this building is Penn's Charter of Philadelphia, granted in 1701, and West's noted painting of
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Penn's Treaty with the Indians.