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7 <br /> <br />Fourteen original copies of the twelve proposed amendments to the United States constitution <br />were prepared by three federal clerks in 1789. On September 25, 1789 after Congress ratified <br />the first ten amendments, a copy of the Bill of Rights was sent to each state. After North <br />Carolina ratified the Bill of Rights, the original document was housed in the state’s archives in <br />Raleigh. <br /> <br />In 1865, a Union infantryman broke into the state archives and stole documents including the <br />Bill of Rights. The Union soldier took the Bill of Rights to Ohio, where he pawned it. The <br />document briefly resurfaced in the 1920’s. The Bill of Rights was then acquired by an antique <br />collector who was a regular participant on the PBS television show, “Antiques Roadshow”. The <br />collector told potential buyers that the document could not be traced back to any state. He later <br />tried to sell it to the National Constitutional Center in Philadelphia. The National Constitutional <br />Center authenticated the document had been prepared by one of the three federal clerks. <br /> <br />Mike Easley, the then Governor of North Carolina, along with the U.S. Attorney General, <br />worked with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”) to get the document back. After an FBI <br />sting involving $4 million in 2007, North Carolina’s original copy of the Bill of Rights was <br />returned to the state. Four of the original 13 states’ copies of the Bills of Rights are still missing <br />(Georgia, New York, Maryland, and Pennsylvania). <br /> <br />Commissioner Burroughs read the revised proclamation: <br /> <br />ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS <br />PROCLAMATION <br />BILL OF RIGHTS DAY <br />DECEMBER 15, 2017 <br /> <br /> WHEREAS, on December 15, 1791 the necessary states ratified the first ten <br />amendments to the United States Constitution, called the Bill of Rights; and <br /> <br /> WHEREAS, the Bill of Rights protects every person in the United States of America <br />from the infringement of basic human and civil rights; and <br /> <br /> WHEREAS, it was the North Carolina convention, held in Hillsborough, which was <br />instrumental regarding the inclusion of a Bill of Rights as part of ratifying the United States <br />Constitution; and <br /> <br /> WHEREAS, the amendments to the Constitution are a safeguard that the Country will <br />never succumb to the tyranny it has fought against and ensure the principles found in the <br />Constitution will continue to be guaranteed; and <br /> <br /> WHEREAS, those principles of equality, liberty and justice have been carried forward <br />226 years as each generation continues to work on “perfecting our Nation”; and <br /> <br /> WHEREAS, the same fundamental belief in the principles of this Nation that propelled <br />James Madison to insist on the amendments to the Constitution must be the same spark that <br />inspires us to defend these principles today; and <br /> <br /> WHEREAS, on the 225th Anniversary of the Bill of Rights, former President Barack <br />Obama proclaimed, “if we are to ensure the sacred ideals embodied in the Bill of Rights are