Although I do give some of Dave's later problems a little space due to the way he was raised, there is absolutely no excuse for starting something so uncivilized, un-American, malfeasant and self serving as the democratic party. That crime, all by itself, should have garnered a trip to the gallows or even cause enough to be drawn and quartered.
Hard to believe, photo of the Liberty Bell being removed from the train during the 1915 cross-country tour. http://www.ushistory.org/libertybell/photos.html
@Beatrice Taylor That is an amazing amount of access that the people had to the Bell! Maybe we need another tour?
The reason the Liberty Bell cracked in the first place is that there were no Bellwrights among the Colonists at that time. Whoever cast the bell did not research the metallurgical formula for a bell that could display endurance as well as tone. They didn't bother with consulting the great European bellwrights, who would have helped with the proper ingredients for the casting. Those "upstart" Colonials! Hal
It was actually made in London by Lester and Pack, which later became the Whitechapel Bell Foundry. At the first strike of the clapper, the rim cracked. Because it was too expensive to return it, it was recast in the Colonies. Upon the first recast, it was augmented with copper and, while it didn't crack, the sound wasn't good. On the second recasting, they augmented it with pewter, and it cracked again. Whitechapel Foundry's position was that it was either damaged in transit or by an inexperienced bell ringer. But in 1975, an analysis of the metal determined that a series of errors in its original construction, its reconstruction, and its second reconstruction resulted in a brittle bell that couldn't stand up. So, another way to look at it is that the London foundry pawned a faulty product off on the colonists, who tried twice to fix it, but were unable.
Sometimes a bell is just a bell. The original bell was made in 1751, and it wasn’t intended to be a symbol of any war at all. In fact, it was meant as a celebration. The Pennsylvania Assembly commissioned it in that year to commemorate the 50-year anniversary of William Penn’s Charter of Privileges, which was Pennsylvania’s original Constitution. The Liberty Bell was renamed in the 1830s when many began to view it as a symbol of the abolitionist movement, and for them, it represented the end of slavery, of which Northerners overwhelmingly supported. Its original name was the State House Bell, which isn’t quite as catchy.