50 SACHSE — AN OLD BROADSIDE. [Jan. 21, 



is a building literally crushed by a huge massive tower, square and 

 not very solid. 



'^ Congress meets in a large room on the ground floor. The 

 chamber is large, without any other ornament than a bad engraving 

 of Montgomery, one of Washington, and a copy of the Declaration of 

 Independence. It is furnished with thirteen tables, each covered 

 with a green cloth. One of the representatives of each of the thir- 

 teen States sits during the session at one of these tables. The 

 President of the Congress has his place in the middle of the hall 

 upon a sort of a throne." 



Now the phrase, ''sort of a throne," might mean nothing, if 

 coming from a modern American, more than a very dignified seat ; 

 but, coming as it does from a French 'nobleman of the ancient 

 regime, it certainly suggests the idea of regal state. The least we 

 can expect from it would be an ornamental chair on a dais sur- 

 mounted by a canopy and ornamented with the symbols of the home 

 government. 



With these facts before us we may well assume that the symbol 

 was an actual and not a typical one, and that it could only have 

 been introduced into the general design by one familiar with the 

 old Council Chamber. 



We now come to another phase of the subject ; how so elaborate 

 a piece of furniture happened to be a part of the equipment of the 

 Chamber at the time when the Continental Congress took the step 

 which eventually made the Colonies an independent nation. The 

 solution of this problem is comparatively easy. W^hen it is taken into 

 consideration that the room in which Congress met had for years been 

 used by the Assembly of Pennsylvania, and was more or less elab- 

 orately equipped with fine furniture and hangings, there can be but 

 little question that ample provision was made for the august Speaker 

 and for the Governor when he was present on State occasions in the 

 shape of an elaborate canopied dais, surmounted by the royal arms 

 and other insignia of monarchical authority. 



A somewhat similar arrangement witli royal insignia over the 

 seat of the Chief Justice ornamented the west room. The final 

 disposition of these symbols of kingly authority appears in the issue 

 of the Pennsylvania Journal, Wednesday, July lo, 1776, where we 

 are told that on the evening of Monday, July 8, the day upon which 

 the Declaration was publicly read, '' Our late King's coat of arms 

 was brought from the hall in the State House and burned amidst 

 the acclamations of a crowd of spectators." 



