Continuing Inspiration

Continuing Inspiration. Independence National Historical Park. , Americans have continually gathered here, in the shadow of Independence Hall, to explore, celebrate, contemplate, and challenge the ideals embodied in the Declaration of Independence and US Constitution., Abolitionist Frederick Douglass delivered a speech against slaveholding on Independence Square in 1844. Suffragist Susan B. Anthony raised an outcry at the Centennial celebration on July 4, 1876, using this space to link the principles of the Declaration of Independence with women's voting rights. Activist Barbara Gittings protested here with other lesbian and gay right demonstrators in the 1960s, seeking inclusion in "We the People.", The ideas of liberty and self-government proposed and tested in these halls and on these grounds still echo through our lives, challenging and inspiring people around the world., [Sidebar:] , President-elect Abraham Lincoln pondered the meaning of the words "all men are created equal" inside Independence Hall in 1861:, There was "something in the Declaration giving liberty, not alone to the people of this country, but hope to the world for all future time. It was that which gave promise that in due time the weights should be lifted from the shoulders of all men, and that all should have an equal chance.", [Caption:] , The universal principles of freedom and democracy proclaimed here have distinguished Independence Hall as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.