Liberty Made in America

Last week I wrote about the Liberty Bell and how different aspects of its history are symbolic of Liberty itself. In that blog I mentioned that the Liberty Bell was cast in England at Whitechapel Foundry near London and delivered to Philadelphia on September 1, 1752, while we were still an English Colony, subject to English rule.

 

The Bell, which was inscribed with Leviticus 25:10, “Proclaim Liberty throughout all the Land unto all the Inhabitants thereof,” was to be installed in the State House (now Independence Hall) Steeple to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of William Penn’s 1701 Charter of Privileges. The first time it was rung, however, a large crack appeared, rendering it unringable. The damage was sufficient so that the Bell was given to John Pass and John Stowe, two Philadelphia foundry workers, to melt it down and recast it. This was absolutely necessary because the Bell that would eventually become a symbol of American Liberty needed to be made in America.

 

Twenty-four years later we declared our independence from England while engaged in a war that appeared to the world to be both unwise and unwinnable, and the Bell pealed loudly to call the citizenry together for the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence. This Bell that had originated in England had proven to be unsuitable for service in America and had been forged anew on American soil so that it could “Proclaim Liberty throughout all the Land unto all the inhabitants thereof.” We proclaimed a new kind of Liberty, without a monarchy, with elected officials answerable to the people who elected them. It was not, and is not, a perfect system, but it was and is the best system the world has ever known. It was Liberty made in America for Americans.

 

Liberty can neither be imported nor exported. We may serve as a model for other countries who want Liberty, but we cannot win their Liberty for them. When we have committed ourselves to bring democracy to other nations, the results have not been good. Usually we have succeeded in helping them exchange one group of despots for another—Cuba, Afghanistan, Iraq.

 

George W. Bush said that “Liberty is God’s gift to humanity”. While I believe that is true, I also believe that, like God’s other gifts to humanity, people must want Liberty before they can receive it. It is not enough for us to want Liberty for others; they must want it for themselves. We cannot simply go into other countries and dole out Liberty as if it were a giant Care Package. Liberty is fragile. It must be won by those who are willing to pay any price to secure it, and then it must be protected.

 

Every generation is called on to defend Liberty, and every free nation must value it enough so that they nurture it and protect it and pass it on to the next generation. The Liberty that we enjoy today was bought with a great price, and it has been secured by each generation with American blood and American treasure. Our Liberty was made in America, and the Bell that proclaimed that Liberty on July 8, 1776, was also made in America. Liberty was certainly God’s gift to America, but in order to secure it, Americans had to accept it, proclaim it, and defend it. If the day ever comes when we fail to value and defend it, Liberty will be lost.

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Joyce Swann is the author of Looking Backward: My Twenty-Five Years as a Homeschooling Mother co-author of The Chosen, a dystopian novel about the battle of one U.S. family to restore the Constitution and stop the indefinite detention provisions of the National Defense Authorization Act. For more information, visit her website at http://www.frontier2000.net