Dec 14 2007
Independence– worth the paper its printed on?
Every so often, there’s a news story about a copy of a state constitution or declaration that has been discovered and auctioned to the highest bidder. Sometimes there’s a twist: the state’s trying to recover the materials, or a benefactor has magnanimously donated the papers to an archival repository. This time, an early copy of the Declaration of Independence was found in an attic in Wiscasset, ME in 1994 and sold to a private collector. Now Maine is trying to reclaim the property through courts by reason of replevin, which states that property created by and of the state must be returned to the state. However, since the document was actually created as part of the original thirteen US colonies and not the state of Maine, I wonder what the outcome will be?
The article that discusses the provenance of the document and other particulars can be found on the NYT site here.
I’m mostly opposed to the practices of private collectors snatching up various documents and thereby making them unavailable to the general public. In many cases, documents owned by private investors may not be receiving proper care, preservation treatment, handling, or ideal storage conditions. Is the Declaration of Independence any different? Does it matter that we have other copies, that the informational content is available elsewhere? Does this case rest just as heavily on the Declaration as a symbol that should be held by the public as it does on the actual document?
