ASHEVILLE, NC — Historical document appraiser and collector Seth Kaller spreads a large sheet of paper across a desk. It’s in good enough condition to handle it gently, with clean, bare hands. There are only a few wrinkles and minor discolorations, even though it’s only a few weeks shy of 237 years old and has been sitting in a filing cabinet in North Carolina for who knows how long.
At the top of the first page are the familiar words, but in plain letters instead of the Gothic script we are used to: “WE, the people …”
And the public will have the chance to bid on this copy of the United States Constitution – the only copy of its type believed to be in private hands – at an auction by Brunk Auctions on September 28 in Asheville, North Carolina.
The minimum bid for the auction is $1 million. There is no minimum price that must be met.
This copy was printed after the Constitutional Convention in 1787 approved the proposed framework of the country’s government and it was ratified by the Congress of the ineffective first american government under the Articles of Confederation.
It is one of about 100 copies printed by the secretary of that Congress, Charles Thomson. Only eight are known to exist, and the remaining seven are in government possession.
Thomson probably signed two copies for each of the original 13 states, effectively certifying them. They were sent to special ratification conventions, where representatives, all white and male, struggled for months before accepting the structure of the U.S. government that exists today.
“This is the connecting point between the government and the people. The preamble — ‘we the people’ — this is the moment where the government asks the people to empower them,” said auctioneer Andrew Brunk.
What happened to the auctioned document between Thomson’s signing and 2022 is not known.
Two years ago, a tract of land once owned by Samuel Johnston was cleared in Edenton, eastern North Carolina. He was governor of North Carolina from 1787 to 1789 and oversaw the state convention during his last year in office that ratified the Constitution.
The copy was found in a squat two-drawer metal filing cabinet with a can of stain on top, in a long-neglected room full of old chairs and a dusty bookcase, before the old Johnston house was saved. The document was a wide sheet that could be folded once like a book.
“I get calls every week from people who think they have a Declaration of Independence or a Gettysburg Address, and most of the time it’s just a copy, but every once in a while something significant is found,” said Kallerwho appraises, buys and sells historical documents.
“This is a whole different level of importance,” he added.
Along with the Constitution on the broad sheet of paper, front and back, is a letter from George Washington asking for ratification. He recognized that compromises must be made and rights enjoyed by the states must be given up for the long-term health of the nation.
“To secure to all the rights of independent sovereignty, and yet provide for the interest and safety of all, individuals entering society must give up a portion of their liberty to retain the remainder,” wrote the man who would become the first president of the United States.
Brunk isn’t sure what the document could be used for, since there’s so little to compare it to. The last time a copy of the Constitution like this sold was in 1891 for $400. In 2021, Sotheby’s of New York sold a of only 13 remaining copies of the Constitution printed for the Continental Congress and delegates to the Constitutional Convention for $43.2 milliona record of a book or document.
But that document was primarily intended for internal use and debate by the Founding Fathers. The copy that went on sale later this month was intended to be sent to people across the country to judge and decide whether they wanted to be governed that way, connecting the writers of the Constitution with the people in the states that would provide its power and legitimacy.
Other items up for auction in Asheville include a first draft of the Articles of Confederation from 1776 and a Journal of the 1788 Convention of North Carolina at Hillsborough, where delegates spent two weeks debating whether ratification of the Constitution would give too much power to the nation rather than the states.
