Bill of Rights discovered

[Nathaniel Firethorn]

http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/03/19/bill.of.rights/index.html

Missing Bill of Rights copy recovered

Wednesday, March 19, 2003 Posted: 12:48 PM EST (1748 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The FBI has recovered a valuable copy of the Bill of Rights that had been missing for 138 years, bureau sources said Wednesday.

The document, one of 14 copies of the Bill of Rights commissioned by President George Washington, is worth an estimated $30 million, the FBI said.

It was stolen from the North Carolina Statehouse by a Union soldier during the Civil War, officials said. "A carpetbagger took it in 1865," said one official. "It's really priceless."

The document was recovered by the FBI in Philadelphia on Tuesday in an undercover operation when an individual attempted to sell it, officials said. The copy is believed to have been in North Carolina in recent years, but officials were uncertain where it had been for most of the past 138 years.

The Bill of Rights is the first 10 amendments to the Constitution. It was demanded by many states as a condition to ratifying the Constitution. They were ratified in 1791.

- pdmoderator

 

[Kaylee]

Hrmm.. maybe now that they have a copy in their custody, they'll actually read it.



... the truly disgusting part is that the article has to explain what the BOR actually is.

-K

 

[Apple a Day]

Darn, for a moment there I had a vision of Congress repealing all the gun control laws

 

[Standing Wolf]

The federal government has a long history of stealing our civil rights.

 

[cordex]

Question:
How does the principal of SIFAS apply here?

Why can the FBI take this back from the current owner?

 

[clem]

Kaylee,

"Hrmm.. maybe now that they have a copy in their custody, they'll actually read it."

totally outstanding! HA! HA! HA!

 

[Navy joe]

Yes, that is pretty puzzling, the current owner probably didn't know it was hot property. Even if so, he darn sure didn't do the five fingering so should be compensated. Reminds me of the deal over the double struck gold eagle they confiscated based on FDR's outlawing of private gold bullion.

... the truly disgusting part is that the article has to explain what the BOR actually is.

Ah, yeah. They probably shoulda gone ahead and explained what the Constitution was too.

"They were ratified in 1791" In an example of their excellent foresight, the founding dominantgenderraceforepersons wrote one, the 2nd with a clause establishing the National Guard which finally came to fruition in 1903.

 

[Greg L]

When I first started to read it I thought that it was going to be a satire story about the govt discovering that much of what they do isn't allowed under the BOR. Oh well, maybe next time.

Still, a very interesting piece of history.

Greg