William Bingham Tappan (1794–1849)

On the old State-House bell, in Philadelphia, which was cast in that city, several years before the American Revolution, is the following prophetic inscription: “Proclaim LIBERTY throughout all the land, unto all the inhabitants thereof.”—Leviticus xxv. 10. The ringing of this bell gave the first intelligence of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

’TWAS fitting, that, throughout the land,

The anointed bell proclaim

The triumphs of a glorious band,

And their invaders’ shame:

’Twas fitting, that its merry peal

Should fling out silver tones,

That did, before, the WORD reveal

So terrible to thrones.

Talk not of chance! the word that went

To Israel’s tribes of yore,

Free as the winds of heaven, was sent

To this far western shore:

Our fathers spake it in distress—

A small and feeble flock—

They hymn’d it in the wilderness,

And wrote it on the rock.

Talk not of chance! for well he knew—

The founder—that his art

Graved only here the impress true,

Already on the heart:

And he well deem’d that liberty

Should one day wake the sword:

Around the hearths of all the free,

It was a cherish’d word,

Known, not in vain imaginings,

To wake up idle strife;

But treasured as a holy thing,

Dearer to heart than life.

Marvel not, then, the voice thus pent

Within the conscious breast,

At times, through some unguarded vent

Should rush forth unrepress’d.

Interpreted, it truly told

Of high oppression’s knell;

Of banners beckoning, garments roll’d

In blood—that warning bell!

Yes, also, that from martyr graves

Columbia’s living seed

Should spring—the scourge of sceptred slaves,

The bulwark of her need.

Talk not of chance! Not only here

Forth goes the unerring sound:—

It stirs another hemisphere,

A world shall be unbound!

And children, rescued from the yoke,

Shall to their children tell

Of the immortal deed that woke

The Revolution’s bell.

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