The Liberty Bell

The Liberty Bell tolled to call citizens to hear the reading of the Declaration of Independence once it was completed. It was an important part of our history and was commissioned by the Pennsylvania Assembly in 1751. On it you see this:

"Proclaim liberty through all the land and to all the inhabitants thereof. (Leviticus XXV, 10)"

Now this was a state, not the yet-to-be-formed Federal Government, that chose those words. Yet in current interpretations of our Bill of Rights, states are constrained the same as the Federal Goverment. (Actually, even towns and school systems are now seemingly subject to a broad set of prohibitions.) Keeping in mind the Founders intense desire to keep the Federal Government from getting too powerful and from messing in their affairs, does a reasonable person believe that they would have drafted an act that could force them to undo many of their institutions?