Editor’s note: One hundred copies of the Constitution were made in 1787, to be sent to the States and ratified by the people. Eight copies are now known to exist. One is up for auction on Saturday, September 28, 2024. Reprinted from Associated Press Journalist Jeffrey Collins; actual photo of the Preamble of this rare document.)
Click here to read about Constitution Week acknowledgements in Morrison, IL.
Historical document appraiser and collector Seth Kaller spreads a broad sheet of paper across a desk. It’s in good enough condition that he can handle it, carefully, with clean bare hands. There are just a few creases and tiny discolorations, even though it is just a few weeks shy of 237 years old and has spent who-knows-how-long inside a filing cabinet in North Carolina.
At the top of the first page are familiar words, but in regular type instead of the sweeping Gothic script we’re used to seeing: “WE, the People….”
And the people will get a chance to bid for this copy of the U. S. Constitution–the only of its type thought to be in private hands–at a sale by Brunk Auctions on September 28 in Asheville, North Carolina.
The minimum bid for the auction of $1million has already been made. There is no minimum price that must be reached.
The copy was printed after the Constitutional Convention finished drafting the proposed framework of the Nation’s government in 1787 and sent it to the Congress of the ineffective first American government, under the Articles of Confederation, requesting they send it to the states to be ratified by the people.
It’s one of about a 100 copies printed by the Secretary of that Congress, Charles Thomson. Just eight are known to still exist, and the other seven are publicly owned.
Thomson likely signed two copies for each of the original 13 states, essentially certifying them. They were sent to special ratifying conventions, where representatives, all white and male, wrangled for months before accepting the structure of the United States government that continues today.
“This is the point of connection between the government and the people. The Preamble–‘we the people’–this is the moment the government is asking the people to empower them,” Auctioneer Brunk said.
What happened to the document up for auction between Thomson’s signature and 2022 isn’t known.
Two years ago, a property was being cleared out in Edenton[, NC,]…once owned by Samuel Johnston. He was the Governor of North Carolina from 1787 to 1789….He oversaw the state convention…that ratified the Constitution.
The copy was found inside a squat, two-drawer, metal, filing cabinet, with a can of stain on top, in a long-neglected room, piled high with old chairs and a dusty book case, before the Johnston house was preserved. The document was a broadsheet [one-sided, one page newspaper] that could be folded one time like a book.
[Stated] Kaller, who appraises, buys, and sells historic documents, “This is a whole other level of importance.”
Along with the Constitution broadsheet, printed front and back, is a letter from George Washington, asking for ratification. He acknowledged there will have to be compromise, and that rights the states enjoyed will have to be given up, for the Nation’s long-term health.
“To secure all rights of independent sovereignty to each and yet provide for the interest and safety for all–individuals entering into society must give up a share of liberty to preserve the rest,” wrote the man, who would become the first U. S. President.