Softpedia >News >Science >Sci Pry
Softpedia Homepage   

A 1776 Copy of the Declaration Is in Private Hands

The Va. man bought it for $475,000

Feb 28, 2009 12:01 GMT  ·  By
The 1776 copy of the Declaration of Independence, which is now in the hands of a private collector
   The 1776 copy of the Declaration of Independence, which is now in the hands of a private collector

Richard Adams Jr., a technology entrepreneur from the Fairfax County in Virginia, is currently the legal owner of a 1776 copy of the Declaration of Independence, which he acquired in 2001 from a London book dealer for the hefty sum of $475,000. A court ruling awarded him full possession of the document, after the state of Maine sued him to get the paper back. But the judges decided that the piece of American history was the rightful property of Adams and that the state had no right to claim it.

According to historic records, the document was kept in the town of Wiscasset in 1776 by a clerk. The state constructed its claims based on this information, saying that, as a legal paper, the copy should rightfully belong to it. But Adams' lawyer made it pretty clear that the clerk in charge of taking care of the important document copied it into the town's archives on November 10th, 1776, and as such it represented the rightful copy of the town, as public records showed.

Through its decision, the Virginia high court upheld a lower court decision, which made the same decision a while back. It justified its ruling by arguing that the document in question, which is now owned by Adams, was never an official town paper, and that the entrepreneur had a superior title to the print, as it was bought and sold in good faith.

“The fact that the print was not made by an authorized public officer and was not intended to be the official memorial of the Declaration precluded the print from qualifying as a 'public record' under common law,” the decision of the court stated.

“The unfortunate result is a public record that we believe rightfully belongs to the people of Maine is now in the hands of a private collector in Virginia,” Thomas Knowlton, the assistant attorney general of Maine, differs. He adds that the clerk never officially relinquished the documents, which, in theory at least, still makes it a property of the government.

Despite being severely disappointed with the decision, state of Maine officials point out that this is the end of the road for them, as there are no federal issues involved in this case to merit the attention of the US Supreme Court.