The Bill of Rights First Ten Amendments Chapter 1 The Bill of Rights...00 Overview Drafting the Bill of Rights.....00 Debate in Congress....00 History of Amendment Language.....00 As Submitted to the States....00 Original Primary Documents Sketch of Proceedings of Congress, 8 June 1789...00 Congressional Intelligence, Daily Advertiser, 12 June 1789...00 Remarks on the Amendments...The Federal Gazette, 23 July 1789...00 The Bill of Rights, New-England Galaxy, 29 December 1820...00 Who s Who Tench Coxe...00 Thomas Hartley...00 James Madison...00 Roger Sherman...00 William Loughton Smith...00 John Vining...00 America at That Time...00 Footnotes, References, Further Reading...00 1
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First Proposed: September 25, 1787 Sent to States: September 28, 1789 Signed Into Law: December 15, 1791 Chapter 1 THE BILL OF RIGHTS The Preamble to The Bill of Rights Congress of the United States begun and held at the City of New-York, on Wednesday the fourth of March, one thousand seven hundred and eighty nine. THE Conventions of a number of the States, having at the time of their adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added: And as extending the ground of public confidence in the Government, will best ensure the beneficent ends of its institution. RESOLVED by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, two thirds of both Houses concurring, that the following Articles be proposed to the Legislatures of the several States, as amendments to the Constitution of the United States, all, or any of which Articles, when ratified by three fourths of the said Legislatures, to be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of the said Constitution; viz. ARTICLES in addition to, and Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, proposed by Congress, and ratified by the Legislatures of the several States, pursuant to the fifth Article of the original Constitution. Note: The following text is a transcription of the first ten amendments to the Constitution in their original form. These amendments were ratified December 15, 1791, and form what is known as the Bill of Rights. Amendment I Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. Amendment II A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. 3
Constitutional Amendments Amendment III No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law. Amendment IV The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. Amendment V No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation. Amendment VI In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence. Amendment VII In Suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law. Amendment VIII Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. Amendment IX The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. Amendment X The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. 4
CHAPTER ONE The Bill of Rights OVERVIEW Drafting the Bill of Rights The US Constitution was ratified in 1789, only through the promise that additional rights would be proposed in Congress, and then sent to the states for ratification. Even fewer laymen know that in 1789, when these additional ideas for rights were sent to the States, there were twelve, and not ten, potential amendments submitted. Of these, ten were ratified; two others did not get the required two-thirds of the states in support. This section discusses the historical record of the twelve potential amendments submitted to the states in 1789. The push to get a Constitution arose out of the many problems and deficiencies in the Articles of Confederation, the document that was the Constitution of the colonies and the early United States before there was a Constitution. The Constitutional Convention that met in Philadelphia in 1776 came together because the states realized that in the wake of the colonies winning their independence from England, a new Constitution had to be drafted. In a letter to James Duane, an attorney and a former member of the Continental Congress, Alexander Hamilton, destined to serve as America s first Secretary of the Treasury, wrote, in part, Agreeably to your request and my promise I sit down to give you my ideas of the defects of our present system, and the changes necessary to save us from ruin. They may perhaps be the reveries of a projector rather than the sober views of a politician. You will judge of them, and make what use you please of them. The fundamental defect is a want of power in Congress. It is hardly worth while to show in what this consists, as it seems to be universally acknowledged, or to point out how it has happened, as the only question is how to remedy it. It may however be said that it has originated from three causes an excess of the spirit of liberty which has made the particular states show a jealousy of all power not in their own hands; and this jealousy has led them to exercise a right of judging in the last resort of the measures recommended by Congress, and of acting according to their own opinions of their propriety or necessity, a diffidence in Congress of their own powers, by which they have been timid and indecisive in their resolutions, constantly making concessions to the states, till they have scarcely left themselves the shadow of power; a want of sufficient means at their disposal to answer the public exigencies and of vigor to draw forth those means; which have occasioned them to depend on the states individually to fulfil their engagements with the army, and the consequence of which has been to ruin their influence and credit with the army, to establish its dependence on each state separately rather than on them, that is rather than on the whole collectively. [1] On 12 September 1787, a mere five days before the Constitutional Convention, held in Philadelphia, adjourned to send the un-amended Constitution out to the states for ratification, delegates Elbridge Gerry and George Mason stood up and called for these yet-to-be constitutional principles to be amended before they had even been ratified. Mason told the convention, It would give great quiet to the people; and with the aid of the State declarations, a bill might be prepared in a few hours. [2] Despite bringing this obvious problem to the delegates attention, the motion of Gerry and Mason was voted down. Two days later, delegate Charles Cotesworth Pinckney joined Gerry in adding language to the original Constitution itself that stated clearly that the liberty of the Press shall be inviolably observed. Again, the delegates refused to budge, especially after delegate Roger Sherman argued that [t]he power of Congress [to stop free speech] does not extend to the Press. The convention signed the Constitution on 17 September, and sent it on the states for ratification. Those delegates who had refused to listen to Mason, or Gerry, or Pinckney, or rights supporter Richard Henry Lee, all believed that the states were hungry for this new orderly government, and there would be little appetite for any changes so soon after it had been carefully woven together. These forces would soon be in for a rude awakening. 5