Court hears Declaration arguments

PDF: Suit

The Supreme Court of Virginia yesterday heard arguments in Maine's last chance to obtain a 1776 copy of the Declaration of Independence it says belongs to the town of Wiscasset.

"Public documents belong to the government, they don't belong to people," Thomas A. Knowlton, a Maine assistant attorney general, told the Virginia justices yesterday. He said the print belongs to the town.

The print was copied by hand into the town book on Nov. 10, 1776, found in the attic of a daughter of a former clerk in 1994, and purchased for $475,000 from a dealer in London in 2001 by Richard L. Adams Jr., a private collector in Fairfax County.

Adams' lawyer, Robert K. Richardson, disagrees that the 1776 copy is a Wiscasset public document. Among other things, he told the court yesterday that there is no hard evidence where the copy was from 1776 to 1994.

"Nobody knows what happened in the 200-year period," he said.

Several justices questioned each side, and the court is expected to rule in late February.

In a 15-page ruling last year, a Fairfax County judge held that Adams was a legitimate purchaser and had a superior claim of ownership. Maine appealed to the Virginia high court, leading to yesterday's hearing.

Wiscasset is a coastal town with a population of 3,600.

"It's hard to imagine a document that would be more important to a town than a copy of the Declaration of Independence," Knowlton said after the hearing.

Paula Gibbs, a reporter for the weekly Wiscasset Newspaper, circulation 1,300, traveled to Richmond to cover the arguments yesterday at her own expense.

If Maine loses, there will be no further appeals, Knowlton said.

In 1776, the Executive Council of Massachusetts ordered that 200 to 300 copies of the Declaration of Independence, called a "broadside," be printed by Ezekiel Russell, of Salem, Mass., for the state's parishes and be read to congregations.

At the time Maine was part of Massachusetts and Wiscasset was known as Pownalborough. The name was changed in 1802, and Maine became a separate state in 1820.

After it was read from the pulpit, the preacher turned the copy over to the town clerk on Oct. 19, 1776. On Nov. 10, 1776, the clerk transcribed it into the town book, as directed by the executive council.

In 1994 an estate auctioneer found the document in a box in the attic of a daughter of a former town clerk who died in 1929. It was sold and wound up in the hands of the London rare book dealer.

Richardson contends that it is not Adams' copy of the Declaration, but the transcription of the copy in the town record book, that is the town's official record. He said the executive council gave no instructions on what was to happen to the print after it was copied.

Knowlton told the justices that to prove it is a public town record, Maine need only show that Russell, a private printer, was acting in an official capacity when he printed the copies and that the town had possession of it for as little as one day.

Justice Barbara M. Keenan asked Richardson: "Do you agree if Maine has proven it's a public record, it is over for you?"

Richardson responded, "They have no such proof."

Richardson said that Maine would have to prove the document was stolen and/or was a public record and that Maine did not have proof of either.

Ellen Firsching Brown, a local lawyer and rare books dealer, said there has been a flurry of recent efforts by states to reclaim such documents.

In the past few years authorities in Virginia and several other states have gone after historical documents in private hands, she said.

She says the stimulus appears to be the Internet, which makes it easier for archivists to track documents and to spread the word they are looking for them, and popular television shows such as "Antiques Roadshow."

Contact Frank Green at (804) 649-6340 or .