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7 <br />1 <br />but also that the government could not restrict those inherent and unalienable rights and <br />2 <br />freedoms that every personhas. The ten amendments, limiting governmental power, were <br />3 <br />called “The Bill of Rights” and ratified on December 15, 1791. <br />4 <br />5 <br />Fourteen original copies of the twelve proposed amendments to the United States constitution <br />6 <br />were prepared by three federal clerksin 1789. On September 25, 1789 after Congress ratified <br />7 <br />the first ten amendments, a copy of the Bill of Rights was sent to each state. After North <br />8 <br />Carolina ratified the Bill of Rights, the original document was housed in the state’s archives in <br />9 <br />Raleigh. <br />10 <br />11 <br />In 1865, a Union infantryman broke into the state archives and stole documents including the <br />12 <br />Bill of Rights. The Union soldier took the Bill of Rights to Ohio, where he pawned it. The <br />13 <br />document briefly resurfaced in the 1920’s. The Bill of Rights was then acquired by an antique <br />14 <br />collector who was a regular participant on the PBS television show, “Antiques Roadshow”. The <br />15 <br />collector told potential buyers that the document could not be traced back to any state. He later <br />16 <br />tried to sell it to the National Constitutional Center in Philadelphia. The National Constitutional <br />17 <br />Center authenticated the document had been prepared by one of the three federal clerks. <br />18 <br />19 <br />Mike Easley, the then Governor of North Carolina, along with the U.S. Attorney General, <br />20 <br />worked with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”) to get the document back. After an FBI <br />21 <br />sting involving $4 million in 2007, North Carolina’s original copy of the Bill of Rights was <br />22 <br />returned to the state. Four of the original 13 states’ copies of the Bills of Rights arestill missing <br />23 <br />(Georgia, New York, Maryland, and Pennsylvania). <br />24 <br />25 <br />Commissioner Burroughs read the revised proclamation: <br />26 <br />27 <br />ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS <br />28 <br />PROCLAMATION <br />29 <br />BILL OF RIGHTS DAY <br />30 <br />DECEMBER 15, 2017 <br />31 <br />32 <br />WHEREAS, on December 15, 1791 the necessary states ratified the first ten <br />33 <br />amendments to the United States Constitution, called the Bill of Rights; and <br />34 <br />35 <br />WHEREAS, the Bill of Rights protects every person in the United States of America <br />36 <br />from the infringement of basic human and civil rights; and <br />37 <br />38 <br />WHEREAS, it was the North Carolina convention, held in Hillsborough, which was <br />39 <br />instrumental regarding the inclusion of a Bill of Rights as part of ratifying the United States <br />40 <br />Constitution; and <br />41 <br />42 <br />WHEREAS, the amendments to the Constitution are a safeguard that the Country will <br />43 <br />never succumb to the tyranny it has fought against and ensure the principles found in the <br />44 <br />Constitution will continue to be guaranteed; and <br />45 <br />46 <br />WHEREAS, those principles of equality, liberty and justice have been carried forward <br />47 <br />226 years as each generation continues to work on “perfecting our Nation”; and <br />48 <br /> <br />