Did you know that the Bill of Rights was not part of the original Constitution, but was added in the form of ten amendments after the Constitution was accepted?
At the Constitutional Conventional, there were serious arguments about whether a Bill of Rights, the listing of the rights of our citizens, needed to be included. There are a few tales that explain why the Bill of Rights was not accepted at the time of the Convention:
Some delegates reasoned that a federal bill of rights was unnecessary because most state constitutions already included some form of guaranteed rights; others said that outlining certain rights would imply that those were the only rights reserved to the people. However, historian Richard Beeman, a former Trustee of the National Constitution Center, has pointed out a much more prosaic reason the delegates were so skeptical: They had spent four arduous months of contentious debate in a hot, stuffy room, and were anxious to avoid anything that would prolong the convention. They wanted to go home, so they took a pass. A bill of rights was overruled.
I prefer to think that practicality saved the day!
And what were the first ten amendments?
- Briefly, the first was prohibiting the designation of a state religion or the abridging of the freedom of speech; protected the right to peacefully assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
- The second was to form a militia and allowed the right to bear arms.
- The third prohibited quartering soldiers without the owner’s consent.
- The fourth protected citizens against unreasonable searches and seizures.
- The fifth offered protections regarding criminal cases, including double jeopardy.
- The sixth is the right to a speedy trial.
- The seventh listed the conditions for jury trials.
- The eighth prevented excessive fines and cruel and unusual punishment.
- The ninth clarified that the rights listed here were not exclusive of other human rights.
- And the tenth stated that the rights not stated in the Constitution and not prohibited by the states belonged to the states respectively, or to the people.
In 1788, James Madison was appointed to write a draft of the Bill of Rights. He drew on the Virginia Declaration of Rights, primarily written by George Mason in 1776, as well as recommendations made by the states themselves at their ratifying conventions. The original draft numbered 19 amendments, and was modified to the final ten.
To sum up the significance of having a Bill of Rights, this paragraph from the Constitution Center says it well:
The Bill of Rights represents the first step that ‘We the People’ took in amending the Constitution ‘in Order to form a more perfect Union.’ The original, unamended Constitution was a remarkable achievement, establishing a revolutionary structure of government that put power in the hands of the people. The Bill of Rights built on that foundation, protecting our most cherished American freedoms, including freedom of speech, religion, assembly, and due process of law. For more than two centuries—as we have exercised, restricted, expanded, tested, and debated those freedoms—the Bill of Rights has shaped and been shaped by what it means to be American.
Convention of States activists believe in the Constitution and would like to see its intentions and structure maintained through additional appropriate amendments. We encourage all of our grassroots supporters to learn more about our goals and to communicate regularly with their local elected representatives.
