The residence where the Constitution was found belonged to the former governor of North Carolina, Samuel Johnston, who served his state back in the late 1700s. Apparently, the copy is one of a select few sent to sitting governors of the time by the nation’s first president, George Washington, and it is accompanied by a letter asking the correspondents to read the document and ratify it.

Those in charge of the Constitution auction have not specified whether Johnston was opposed to ratifying the unified states or if he was simply too lazy to get around to it, though the many stacks of books and paperwork lining the walls of his long-untouched office tell a tale all their own.