I finally got a chance to tour Independence Hall today. I arrived this rainy day after the regular tours were over, leaving me with just the “open house” tour that began at five. I bided my time by viewing the Liberty Bell, then progressing to Congress Hall, where the U.S. Congress met while Washington, DC was being built.
Finally five o’clock approached and I queued up for entrance to Independence Hall. Fifty or so fellow citizens filed in to hear the park rangers recount the history of events here. I soaked up as much commentary as I could as the place fascinates me.
Incredibly important, world-changing events took place here. In this building the Declaration of Independence’sfifty-six signers bet their lives, liberty, and pursuits of happiness on the fate of a fledgling nation, defying what was then the most powerful country on earth. That’s heavy stuff, that took serious guts. In later years the same room was the birthplace of the U.S. Constitution, the oldest written constitution on the planet. Incredible.
The bare walls of the Signing Hall eventually caught my attention. Something seemed to be missing. No plaques or signs told the story of the work performed here. In fact, it occured to me only later that the most important showpieces – the documents themselves – were nowhere to be found! How can the birth of our nation be celebrated without the birth certificates themselves?
Once she explained how the hall’s furnishings are mostly fake period pieces, one ranger described how the Framers had firmly declared that no longer would people be slaves to tyranny. Separation of powers – checks and balances, she said, would forever keep us free. I pondered how at odds this statement seems with our nation today and thought it made the Constitution’s absence from Independence Hall seem even stranger.
It would fit right in with the period pieces.
We all toured while David was speaking at an event in Philadelphia. I had to have my swiss army knife inspected.