A reminder to those who think the forefathers got it all right and a strict reading of the Constitution is all we ever need: they didn’t. The Liberty Bell wasn’t enough.
To call attention to injustice and draw support for women’s suffrage, a “Justice Bell,” an imitation of the Liberty Bell, was cast and sent on tour. “The bell’s casting was commissioned by Chester County’s Katharine Wentworth Ruschenberger, an active member of the National Woman Suffrage Association, which later became the League of Woman Voters. The clapper was chained to its side silencing the 2,000 pound bell.”
It was cast at a Meneely Bell foundry; this photo and another newspaper story place it in Troy, which would be Clinton Meneely’s foundry; he had broken off from his father’s and brother’s operation in West Troy (Watervliet).
That’s Mrs. Ruschenberger pulling the rope. The bell traveled Pennsylvania in support of the state’s suffrage movement. Eventually it ended up at Valley Forge National Historical Park, where you can see it today:
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