By 1773, the State House steeple had become so dangerously weakened that it was removed in 1781 and the bell lowered into the brick tower. Some 50 years later, in 1828, when the wooden steeple was rebuilt, a new and larger bell was acquired. The old bell, almost forgotten, probably remained in the tower. The new one was obtained, perhaps, because the original had either cracked or had shown indications of cracking. Traditionally, the fracture occurred while the bell was being tolled during the funeral procession of Chief Justice John Marshall some 7 years later. In 1846, an attempt was made to restore the bell’s tone by drilling the crack so as to separate the sides of the fracture. This attempt failed. The bell was actually tolled for Washington’s birthday, but for the last time, for the crack began to spread. Now that the bell was mute, useless as a summoner or sounder of alarms, it began to assume a new and more vital role. Over the years it came to be a symbol of human liberty—a very substantial symbol of 2,080 pounds of cast metal—inscribed with the Biblical admonition to “proclaim liberty.” [Illustration: _An early use of the Liberty Bell as a symbolic device._ From R. H. Smith, _Philadelphia As It Is_, 1852.] [Illustration: _“The Bellman informed of the passage of the Declaration of Independence.” Lippard’s legend of the Liberty Bell was incorporated by Joel Tyler Headley in his_ Life of George Washington, _which ran serially in_ Graham’s Magazine _in 1854. This illustration appeared in the June issue._] [Illustration: _Between 1854 and 1876, the Liberty Bell stood on display in the Assembly Room on a 13-sided pedestal representing the Thirteen Original States._ Sketch by Theo. R. Davis in _Harper’s Weekly_, July 10, 1869.] It is difficult to find the exact beginnings of this veneration for the Liberty Bell. Independence Hall, the building with which it is so intimately associated, began its evolution as a patriotic shrine about the time of Lafayette’s visit in 1824, but the bell, rarely mentioned earlier, still received no notice. Illustrative of this lack of interest, perhaps, is the late 19th-century tradition, only recently disproved, that in 1828 the Liberty Bell was offered as scrap metal valued at $400 in partial payment to the manufacturer for the new State House bell.