*** Murray, confidential secretary to the Pretender, Prince Charles Edward. [[[The State House.--Independence Hall.--Hancock's Chair.--Portraits of Penn and La Fayette.]]] {271} CHAPTER XI. ```"This is the sacred fane wherein assembled ````The fearless champions on the side of Right; ```Men at whose Declaration empires trembled, ````Moved by the truth's immortal might.= ```"Here stood the patriot--one union folding ````The Eastern, Northern, Southern sage and seer, ```Within that living bond which, truth upholding, ````Proclaims each man his fellow's peer.= ```"Here rose the anthem which all nations, hearing, ````In loud response the echoes backward hurled; ```Reverberating still the ceaseless cheering, ````Our continent repeats it to the world.= ```"This is the hallowed spot where first unfurling * ````Fair Freedom spread her blazing scroll of light; ```Here, from oppression's throne the tyrant hurling, ````She stood supreme in majesty and might!" `````George W. Dewey.= [Illustration: 9279] ROM Carpenters' Hall I went up Chestnut Street to the venerable State House, situated upon its southern side, between Fifth and Sixth Streets. * Hallowed by so many patriotic associations, it has become a Caaba to every American when first visiting the city of Penn. It is cherished by the people of Pennsylvania because of the memories of colonial times, immediately antecedent to the Revolution, which embalm it; and it is cherished by the people of the whole Union as the most revered relic of the war for independence, because it contains the hall wherein the Declaration of that independence was discussed, and adopted in council, and signed, and sent forth to the world. [Illustration: 8279] Being used for public business, this edifice, unlike Carpenters' Hall, is free from the desecrations of mammon, and the Hall of Independence is kept closed, except when curious visitors seek entrance, or some special occasion opens its doors to the public. ** Nothing now remains of the old furniture of the hall except two antique mahogany chairs, covered with red leather, one of which was used by Hancock as president, and the other by Charles Thomson as secretary of Congress, when the Declaration of Independence was adopted. On the walls hang two fine paintings; one a full-length portrait, life size, of William Penn, by the late Henry Inman, and the other a portrait,