Posted on 06/22/2012 6:02:22 AM PDT by ETL
(Reuters) - A gold-embossed piece of U.S. history will go up for sale this month, when Christie's auctions off George Washington's personal copy of the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights.
The documents, which date to 1789 and are signed and annotated by the first U.S. president, are poised to fetch from $2 million to $3 million when they hit the block on June 22, the auction house said on Wednesday.
The bound papers constitute Washington's personal copy of the Acts of Congress. These include the Constitution, whose preamble promises to "secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity," along with the draft Bill of Rights - the first 10 amendments to the Constitution which include such fundamental liberties as the right to free speech, press, assembly and religion.
The volume, embossed with "President of the United States" in gold on the cover, was described by Christie's as being in near-pristine condition after 223 years. It was specially printed for Washington in 1789, his first year in office as president.
The margins include Washington's handwritten brackets and notations highlighting key passages concerning the president's responsibilities.
The Acts of Congress volume was sold from Washington's library at Mt. Vernon in 1876 and was eventually bought at auction by collector Richard Dietrich in the 1960s. It is being offered for sale by the family's estate. ..."
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
My birthday is in September...
(I’m sure that representatives of various museums will be bidding.)
Exactly.
That’s what I say. This is too precious to be “auctioned” off ..who is profiting from this? Worse, who will BUY it?
Is our liberty and freedom for sale?
Some may say yes to that.
Founding Father Ping
Please feel free to ping your Amer Hist list.
Donate it to Mt. Vernon.
PING.
Something like this is a national treasure and should be in a museum.
Considering our government isn’t using it’s copy... Maybe we should send them this copy.
What if a leftist piece of crap like Soros or Ted Turner buys it?
... I'll consider that a bad sign.
The Constitution was reduced to ashes for all to see on January 20, 2009.
What if a leftist piece of crap like Soros or Ted Turner buys it? ...then turns around and sells it for a nice profit to provide cash for anti-American causes.
That would be $100M of OUR (taxpayer) money.
Sickening, how such a person could be elected president of the US considering all the info that was readily available on him prior.
The document was the personal property of George Washington. Evidently it was sold by his heirs, or the trustees of his estate in 1876. Since then it has been legally sold until it became the personal property of this Mr. Dietrich. It is now part of his estate and the proceeds from the sale should go to the heirs of his estate for them to do with as pleases them.
It is the sale of a document of historical interest and I hope it ends up in a museum, but it is not a sale of our freedom or liberty.
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