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"Sherman’s March to the Sea and North Carolina’s Copy of the Bill of Rights "
American Civil War, North Carolina, and the Bill of Rights
The U.S. Marshals Service Takes Possession of North Carolina's Copy of the Bill of
Rights
At times, the U.S. Marshals Service is entrusted with objects of national
and historic importance. Agency personnel transported numerous artifacts of national importance during our Bicentennial exhibit,
including Belle Starr's saddle and Geronimo's Arrest Warrant. The U.S. Marshals' Office of Asset Forfeiture had custody of
Muhammad Ali's World Boxing Championship Rings. In the past year, the agency's involvement in the secure transport of important
historical documents has increased. The Northern District of Illinois ensured the safe transfer of rare letters from President
Abraham Lincoln and John Wilkes Booth from the National Archives to the Newberry Library in Chicago. The U.S. Marshals are
given a unique opportunity to safeguard national treasures and have flawlessly committed themselves. There is no greater example
of this commitment than the recent seizure of North Carolina's copy of the Bill of Rights.
U.S. Marshal Charles Reavis of the Eastern District of North Carolina
applied for a Application and Affidavit For Seizure Warrant to U.S. District Judge Terrence W. Boyle on March 13, 2003. Under
a violation of Title 23 of the United States Code, Section 15, Marshal Reavis was to retrieve some stolen items. This,
however, was not any typical seizure. The property was one of the rarest documents in American history: North Carolina's
copy of the Bill of Rights, only one of fourteen handwritten original documents that define the first ten amendments to the
U.S. Constitution. The document was identified by specific markings on the back of the parchment. According to the Charlotte Observer,
three secretaries wrote the fourteen copies of the historic document on a large page measuring 34 by 28 inches. Once finished,
George Washington sent a copy to each of the original thirteen colonies and one to Congress. Also seized were two related
letters from George Washington to North Carolina Governor Samuel Johnson. According to the affidavit accompanying the warrant,
the handwritten document was being sold by a New York collector through an auction gallery. Both Federal and North Carolina
officials were determined to retrieve it, and Judge Boyle agreed that "the document belonged to the people of North Carolina."
The
astounding story of the missing copy of the Bill of Rights started in April 1865 during Sherman's March to the Sea.
When General William Tecumseh Sherman's army marched through North Carolina battling General Joseph Johnston's Confederate
army, Johnston's men fell back beyond the state capitol of Raleigh, and Sherman's men quickly seized the city. An unnamed
Ohio soldier posted at the North Carolina Office of the Secretary of State in Raleigh took the valuable parchment home at
the close of the Civil War. Similar confiscations by souvenir-seeking soldiers took place throughout the final months of the
conflict, but few were of this national magnitude. The soldier returned to his home in Ohio and sold it the following year
for five dollars to a gentleman named Charles A. Shotwell. In 1876, North Carolina officials traveled to Indianapolis, Indiana
as they believed the copy of the Bill of Rights found its way there. They returned empty-handed. In 1897, state officials
discovered that Shotwell had possession of the document. He refused to return it, and nothing more was heard until 1925.
"It
was like a kidnapping," Marshal Reavis said.
For fifty-nine years, Charles Shotwell preserved the document in his home.
When the old gentleman finally decided to part with it, a colleague named Charles I. Reid contacted the North Carolina Historical
Commission to offer it for sale. No monetary amount was discussed in the March 25, 1925 letter. The possessor wished "any
reasonable honorarium." However, it was clear that North Carolinian officials felt it was stolen property subject to return,
and the offer was rejected. One state official remarked that the missing document represented a "memorial of individual theft"
from the people of North Carolina.
The North Carolina copy of the Bill of Rights resurfaced again in 1995 when a Washington,
D.C. attorney, representing several unnamed individuals, contacted the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources. The
individuals claimed the document had a worth between 3 and 10 million dollars. As tempting the offer may have been, state
officials could not use North Carolina tax dollars to buy it. The Charlotte Observer reported that New York collector Wayne
E. Pratt contacted a Philadelphia museum and tried to sell the copy to them. The collector asked for four million dollars,
and the offer was relayed to Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell. In turn, North Carolina Governor Mike Easley was notified.
Working through U.S. Attorney Roy Cooper, state officials decided to seize the document through a federal sting operation.
Then, the copies were examined by the First Federal Congress Project in Washington, D.C., a part of the George Washington
University, and found to be authentic. The collector signed official contracts at the Philadelphia museum. (During this process,
it was discovered that Mr. Pratt had offered the documents to North Carolina in 1995.) Once the document returned to North
Carolina, it was entrusted to the custody of Marshal Reavis. In the subsequent Civil Action No. 5:03-CV-204-BO, "Verified
Statement of Interest of State of North Carolina," it was determined that "North Carolina had no knowledge of, and did not
consent to, any acts subjecting the property to forfeiture and is therefore an innocent owner." Marshal Reavis and his
deputies in the Eastern District of North Carolina are proud to be entrusted with an object of such historic importance.
"To
be holding a piece of the fabric of the formation of this country ... and to be charged with the protection of it ... it's
sacred."
Source: U.S. Marshals Service
Advance to:
Recommended Reading:
North Carolinians in the Era of the Civil War and Reconstruction (Hardcover) (The University of North Carolina Press). Description: Although North Carolina was a "home front" state rather than a battlefield state for most of the
Civil War, it was heavily involved in the Confederate war effort and experienced many conflicts as a result. North
Carolinians were divided over the issue of secession, and changes in race and gender relations brought new controversy.
Blacks fought for freedom, women sought greater independence, and their aspirations for change stimulated fierce resistance
from more privileged groups. Republicans and Democrats fought over power during Reconstruction and for decades thereafter
disagreed over the meaning of the war and Reconstruction. Continued below...
With contributions
by well-known historians as well as talented younger scholars, this volume offers new insights into all the key issues of
the Civil War era that played out in pronounced ways in the Tar Heel State.
In nine fascinating essays composed specifically for this volume, contributors address themes such as ambivalent whites, freed
blacks, the political establishment, racial hopes and fears, postwar ideology, and North Carolina women. These issues of the
Civil War and Reconstruction eras were so powerful that they continue to agitate North Carolinians today.
Recommended Reading: Bluecoats and Tar Heels: Soldiers
and Civilians in Reconstruction North Carolina (New
Directions in Southern History) (Hardcover). Description:
In Bluecoats and Tar Heels: Soldiers and Civilians in Reconstruction North Carolina, Mark L. Bradley examines the complex
relationship between U.S. Army soldiers and North Carolina civilians after the Civil War. Postwar violence and political instability
led the federal government to deploy elements of the U.S. Army in the Tar
Heel State, but their twelve-year
occupation was marked by uneven success: it proved more adept at conciliating white ex-Confederates than at protecting the
civil and political rights of black Carolinians. Bluecoats and Tar Heels is the first book to focus on the army’s role
as post-bellum conciliator, providing readers the opportunity to discover a rich but neglected chapter in Reconstruction history.
Recommended
Viewing: The History Channel Presents Sherman's March (2007). Description:
“The story of General William Tecumseh Sherman who helped devastate the South's army at the end of the Civil War is
told here via vivid reconstructions of his actions.” This is a great reenactment, presentation. It's not dull like some
documentaries that just continually talk with the same guy for an hour. This includes several individuals that are extremely
knowledgeable in their respective fields--be it civilian or military historian. Also, it includes many re-enactors that portray
“Sherman as well as his entire command.” It literally
takes the viewer back to 1864 to experience it firsthand.
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