Rare copy of US Constitution up for auction, could sell for millions

Treasures long forgotten by history have been discovered below the surface in underground excavations Or hidden in attics or storage spaces. In the case of the rare document, nearly 237 years old, it had been sitting in an unassuming metal filing cabinet that had been abandoned and collecting dust in a home in eastern North Carolina for who knows how long.

Two years ago, during a cleanup at a property in Edenton, North Carolina, a rare copy of the United States Constitution was found.

The rare piece of American history — the only U.S. Constitution of its kind believed to be in private hands — will be auctioned off by Brunk Auctions on September 28 in Asheville, North Carolina. The auction’s minimum bid of $1 million has already been met, and it is expected to go much higher.

Discovering history

The auction piece was discovered at Hayes Farm, a 184-acre plantation in Edenton that once belonged to Samuel Johnston. He was governor of North Carolina from 1787 to 1789 and oversaw the state convention that ratified the Constitution.

“For a long time, this house and library have been considered a very important repository of history, documents and historical objects,” Brunk said.

In the 1980s, most of the books, documents and artifacts from the house — some dating back to Johnston’s time — were donated to the state of North Carolina and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Seth Kaller, an appraiser and collector of historical documents, said that while going through the contents of the home in 1983, the family found a rare copy of the Declaration of Independence that sold at auction for a then-record sum of $412,500.

For some reason, the filing cabinet was never tidied up, and the U.S. Constitution remained hidden for another four decades. In 2022, while the property was being vacated and sold to North Carolina, which is converting it into a public historic site.

The story behind it

On September 18, 1787, the draft that would be the framework for the United States Constitution was sent to the Confederation Congress for discussion and approval. After heated debate at what is now Federal Hall National Memorial in New York City, Congress decided to send it to the states for ratification.

Charles Thomas, the secretary of that Congress, ordered 100 copies printed—and signed only a fraction of them. Of those he signed, only a handful are known to still exist.

This copy of the U.S. Constitution is one of the handful he signed. Historians believe Thompson likely signed two copies for each of the original 13 states, essentially certifying them. They were intended for special ratifying conventions, where representatives argued for months before agreeing on the framework of the U.S. government that endures to this day.

“This is a point of connection between the government and the people and a moment where the idea of ​​‘we the people’ really takes hold,” said Andrew Brunk, an organizer of the auction, adding: “This is a moment where the government is asking the people to step up and create, you know, the government that is necessary, but it’s the will of the people that, you know, they’re waiting for. That’s what this document captures.”

Next to the Constitution, printed on the front and back, is a letter from Washington asking for ratification. He acknowledged that compromise would be necessary and that rights enjoyed by the states would have to be surrendered for the long-term health of the nation.

“To secure to each all the rights of independent sovereignty, and at the same time to provide for the interests and safety of all, the individuals composing a society must give up some liberty to retain the rest,” wrote the man who would become the first president of the United States.

“What’s really amazing about the Constitution is that they didn’t just write a plan for a government for themselves, based on what they knew, but they wrote a plan for a government that was forward-looking, and it was the first time that a government was designed with the idea that it would have to be improved and changed,” Kaller said.

Brunk said he wasn’t sure how much the document might fetch because there were so few things to compare it to. The last copy of the Constitution of this type sold for $400 in 1891.

In 2021, Sotheby’s auction house in New York sold one of only 14 surviving copies of the Constitution printed for the Continental Congress and delegates to the Constitutional Convention for a record $43.2 million.

Other items up for auction

While the Constitution is the main attraction, other items up for auction in Asheville include the first draft of the Articles of Confederation from 1776 and the Journal of the 1788 North Carolina Hillsborough Convention, where representatives spent two weeks debating whether ratifying the Constitution would give too much power to the people rather than the states.

Kaller said the draft of the Articles of Confederation likely belonged to Joseph Hewes, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, who is known to have lived in Johnston’s home. The word “Confederacy” is written on the back of the document in Hewes’ handwriting.

There is also a reproduction of the famous painting by Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze from 1851, Washington Crossing the Delaware RiverIt is believed to be a 19th-century German copy of the painting.

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