Christie's Auctions G. Washington Letter for $3.2 Million

Michael Ruane of the Washington Post writes on the Friday sale at Christie's of a letter written by George Washington in 1787 about the strength of the new US Constitution.  The letter sold for $3.2 million including buyers premium. Christie's estimated the letter to sell between $1.5 and $2.5 million in the catalog. To view the Christie's catalog entry which has much of the letter content listed, click HERE.

The previous high for a Washington document was for $834,500.00 in 2002.  The content and quality of this letter is probably what sets it apart from many other Washington documents.  While Christie's called the document the most important Washington letter to ever come to auction. The buyers name was not released.

Ruan of the Washington Post reports

The letter, owned by an unidentified British descendant of Washington's family, was written Nov. 9, 1787, to his nephew, Bushrod, weeks after the Philadelphia convention that drew up the U.S. Constitution. Washington had presided over the convention and was praising the Constitution's benefits.

The bidding began at $950,000 and quickly surged. It slowed around the $2.7 million mark, as two anonymous telephone bidders battled it out. Auctioneer Francis Wahlgren banged his hammer at $2.8 million a few minutes after 5 p.m. The room broke into applause. The purchaser was not identified.

The letter is written on handmade English paper in Washington's orderly, legible handwriting.

Washington, then 55, expresses his passion for the Constitution and for a union of the states into one strong nation. "If . . . the Union of the whole is a desirable object, the parts which compose it must yield a little," he writes.

He assails critics of the Constitution, and points to its strengths.

"The power under the Constitution will always be with the people," he writes. "It is entrusted for certain defined purposes and for a certain limited period to representatives of their own chusing; and whenever it is exercised contrary to their interests . . . their servants can, and undoubtedly will be, recalled."

To read the Washington Post article, click HERE.