Independence Hall

Entrance to the old Philadelphia State House, ultimately to be known as Independence Hall

If you're planning to visit from March 1st to December 31st you have to get tickets to go into Independence Hall where the debates raged about declaring independence (or not.)  The tickets are free, but you have to have them, and get there in plenty of time to pick up your tickets, go through security, show a photo ID, get frisked, and if you are late getting through the line - tough luck.  They will NOT let you go with the next group.  Reservation fee is only $1.50 per ticket.

Notice the boot scrapers to either side of the doorway.  I don't think that they were only for the mud; I think that they were for some of that horse manure, too!

William Penn had specific ideas about how to build a colony and a city.  (What must it have been like for a man to literally own all of the land in what would become the state of Pennsylvania?)  He wanted all of the buildings to be of brick and mortar, the streets to be laid out in a grid pattern, streets running one direction would be numbered, streets the other direction would be named for trees, there would be lots of green space and trees in amongst the buildings.  Homes would have privy holes dug for inside use.  Though Benjamin Franklin's home was torn down, his privy hole has been capped and inscribe:

 What an ignominious marker!  I think Franklin would be lol!  (More on Franklin later...)

When the State House was built it was on the outside edge of Philadelphia, the largest city in the American colonies at the time, and the State House became the largest structure in the colonies.  It was easy to see why Philadelphia became the first capital of the new United States.  Thanks to Penn it was a beautiful, thriving city on the banks of the wide Delaware River.

We've all seen pictures of the inside of Independence Hall.

It's just pictures until you've stood inside, realized the height of the ceilings, the rooms large enough to hold all of the representatives of the colonies (barely), lit by candles only, screens at the outside doors to stop ice cold drafts on the members sitting closest to the doors.  Those high ceilings probably never gave the room a chance to warm at all.  Folks in the 1700's were very hardy stock - we tend to fall over in a dead faint when the temperature varies 10 degrees off of 78.

Directly across the foyer is an identical room only it's set up as a British courtroom.  Can you imagine discussing opposing the Crown, maybe even declaring independence from the Crown, across the hall from the courtroom you might very well end up in, defending your very life?!  Brave, brave men.

If you look closely on the right, you see the Park Ranger conducting the tour, standing in a cage.  In a British court, the accused must stand in there, never sitting down, for days on end as the trial goes on.  This is where we get the term "stand trial."

The first Continental Congress in 1774 was formed to appeal to King George III and negotiate with the British Parliament to repeal  the horrendous taxes being waged on American colonists to pay for the Seven Years War waged by England against the American colonies.  Failing that, the first shots were fired at Lexington and Concord in April, 1775.

The Second Continental Congress was formed in May, 1775 to decide what to do next.  More than a year after the American Revolution began, Thomas Jefferson was asked by the Second Continental Congress, sitting in Philadelphia's State House, to draft a declaration of independence.  It took him just seventeen days to pen the words so famous and familiar to us now:  When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands...

Having accomplished that, they then set about writing the Articles of Confederation which were completed in November of 1777.  Interestingly enough, the Articles were not ratified by the states until March of 1781.  By 1787 it was acknowledged that the Articles were insufficient for good governing and a Constitutional Convention, presided over by President George Washington, was formed.  The Constitution as we know it today replaced the Articles of Confederation in March of 1789.

Benjamin Franklin wondered to himself during the debates whether the emblem on the back of President Washington's chair was a rising or a setting sun.  With the completion of the document, he said, he knew it was a rising sun.  Kinda gives ya' chills, huh?  These men pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor to establish independence from an oppressively taxing government.  Have we honored them by keeping the new American government in proper check?  Look at those dates again.  1774 - 1789.  For fifteen years they negotiated, fought with words and weapons, compromised, stood firm, worked at creating a solid foundation for our representative democracy.  For fifteen years they were away from their families and comforts of home - with no telegraph, telephones, internet, no wallet-size snapshots of loved ones.  Have we honored their sacrifices?