Honoring the Recovery of NC’s Bill of Rights

The North Carolina House of Representatives met last Monday in special session in the Old House Chamber at the State Capitol to honor the 10th anniversary of an FBI sting operation that returned North Carolina’s copy of the Bill of Rights. During the special session, the House adopted House Resolution 286, introduced by Representatives Paul Stam, Deborah Ross, Duane Hall, and Josh Dobson.


The resolution tells the 1789 story of President George Washington sending every state an original copy of the Bill of Rights for ratification. In 1865, North Carolina’s copy of the Bill of Rights was stolen by a Union soldier during the occupation of Raleigh. Over the next 140 years, there were numerous attempts to sell this stolen copy back to North Carolina, but the State refused to buy back what rightfully belonged to its citizens. On March 18, 2003, the document was seized by federal authorities in Philadelphia. Finally in 2008, the document was turned over to the State of North Carolina after 5 years of litigation and 143 years of being out of the custody of the state.

The document was displayed in the Legislative Building on Tuesday afternoon after being escorted by Lieutenant Governor Dan Forest. The document was also accompanied by a group of Richards Elementary School students from Onslow County on Monday.   From the "Raleigh Update" Week of March 18, 2013 Newsletter from NC House District 93 Representative Jonathan C. Jordan His email is:  Jonathan.Jordan@ncleg.net