Boonton to Philly

Boonton to Philly, PA
I am not sure if Boonton was in NJ or if it was in PA but at any rate tonight we ar just over the Delaware River in NJ and about 26 miles east of Philly. I will use this abbreviation because to write it all out is just too much.
PA was started by William Penn as a large land grant from the king of England. It was for the efforts of his father who was an admiral in the Royal Navy. Penn was a Quaker and his colony was one of the richest in the New World. PA was also one of the most tolerant one liberal of the colonies with it having an elected legislature and the freedom of religion and rights for its common man. The only stipulation of the elected officials was that Penn did have a veto power over any laws enacted.
We visited the Liberty Bell today which was originally the bell of the PA colony legislative house. This in addition to the Constitutional Hall which was the original Legislative Hall of the colony of Pennsylvania.
Here, the colonists debated the Declaration of Independence and there were some who wished only to try to work out their problems with the King of England and the English Parliament. Jefferson and four others wrote the original draft in about 17 days but during the debates there were 89 changes to the finished document.
Also here the Articles of Confederation were written and signed. Later after the War of Independence which lasted 8 years the colonies met again with 55 members and thru the summer wrote and signed the Constitution of the United States. Many changes were made and compromises reached before the final version was accepted.
Among the many statues that are in Philadelphia to George Washington, Benjamin Franklin you also find the lesser known but very heroes of the day such as Barry who was the father of the US Navy and the place where the first medical school in the US was located founded by the Univ of Penn, and Robert Morris who helped to gain funding for the new country for its war and who knew how to get trade goods shipped to the colonies. He was a wealth man at the start of the war but who later spent time in a debtors prison and ultimately died a pauper like so many of the other signers of the Declaration of Independence.
Here also we find the first public library started by Benjamin Franklin and the Second Bank of the United States building which house the Tax Collectors office first. The mint of the US is also here as well as the Carpenter’s House which was a guild home used by the early colonists to try to resolve their problems with England in the year before 1775.
We shall return to Philladelphia tomorrow and try to finish up our tour of the city before we go east again to the Amish country of Lancaster, PA and then to Gettysburg.
We have chosen to skip NY, NY and the cities of Baltimore and probably a few more in the interests of time. Gosh you know that Christmas is coming and so is the snow.
1 Mystic Pizza a slice of heaven
2 The Liberty Bell
3 Independence Hall the former PA State House
4 The first Supreme Court Chambers
5 Room where the Declaration was signed the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution