In November of 1751, the Provincial Assembly of the Colony of Pennsylvania ordered a bell for its new State House. The order directed that the new bell should have a biblical quotation inscribed around it, as the specifications read, "in large and well-formed letters," and the quotation that was prescribed was verse 10 of chapter 25 of Leviticus. These words: "Proclaim liberty throughout the land, and unto all the inhabitants thereof." Surely it was appropriate that this bell, with its challenging inscription, should be the one that should herald the signing of the Declaration of Independence 25 years later.

Well, that bell has long since outlived its usefulness as a bell, but old and cracked and corroded as it is, it is still preserved by our nation with great care among the hallowed tre…