Seth Kaller, an expert and collector of historical documents, spreads a large sheet of paper on a desk. It is in good enough condition that he can handle it carefully, with his bare, clean hands.
There are only a few creases and tiny discolorations, even though it’s only a few weeks shy of 237 years old and has spent who knows how long in a filing cabinet in North Carolina.
At the top of the first page are familiar words, but in normal type, instead of the Gothic script we are used to seeing: “WE, the people…”
And people will have the opportunity to bid for this copy of the U.S. Constitution — the only one of its kind believed to be in private hands — at a sale by Brunk Auctions on September 28 in Asheville, North Carolina.
The minimum bid of $1 million has already been set. There is no minimum price to reach.
This copy was printed after the Constitutional Convention finished drafting the proposed framework for the nation’s government in 1787 and sent it to the Congress of the first ineffective American government under the Articles of Confederation, asking them to send it to the states for popular ratification.
This is one of about 100 copies printed by Secretary of Congress Charles Thomson. Only eight of these are known to exist, the other seven being owned by the state.
Thomson probably signed two copies for each of the original 13 states, certifying them. These copies were sent to special ratification conventions, where the representatives, all white and male, debated for months before agreeing to the structure of the United States government that remains today.
“It’s the connection point between the government and the people. The preamble – ‘we the people’ – is where the government asks the people to give them power,” said auctioneer Andrew Brunk.
It is unclear what happened to the auctioned document between Thomson’s signing and 2022.
Two years ago, a property once owned by Samuel Johnston was being cleared in Edenton, in eastern North Carolina.
He served as 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 two-drawer metal filing cabinet with a spray can of dye on top in a long-neglected room filled with old chairs and a dusty bookcase before the old Johnston house was preserved. The document was a large 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 replica, but every once in a while you find something significant,” said Kaller, who appraises, buys and sells historical documents.
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“It’s a whole other level of importance,” he added.
The Constitution is accompanied by a letter from George Washington requesting its ratification. He recognizes that compromises will have to be made and that the rights enjoyed by the states will have to be given up for the long-term health of the nation.
“To secure to each individual the full rights of independent sovereignty while ensuring the interest and safety of all, individuals entering society must give up some liberty to preserve the rest,” wrote the man who would become the first President of the United States.
Brunk isn’t sure what the document might sell for, because there isn’t much to compare it to. The last time a copy of the Constitution like this sold was for $400 in 1891. In 2021, Sotheby’s in New York sold one of the 14 remaining copies of the Constitution printed for the Continental Congress and delegates to the Constitutional Convention for $43.2 million, a record for a book or document.
But this document was intended to be distributed to the Founding Fathers as delegates to the Constitutional Convention.
The signed copy that will be sold later this month was intended to be sent to the leaders of each state so that citizens across the country could examine it and decide if that was how they wanted to be governed, connecting the framers of the Constitution to the citizens of the states who would provide it with its power and legitimacy.
The auction announcement does not identify the seller, specifying that it is part of a collection belonging to a private individual.
Other items up for auction in Asheville include an early draft of the 1776 Articles of Confederation and a journal from the 1788 North Carolina Convention in Hillsborough, where representatives spent two weeks debating whether ratifying the Constitution would give too much power to the nation rather than the states.
