The History of the Bill of Rights

[Moe Bedard]

On June 7, 1776 Richard Henry Lee of Virginia presented to the Second Continental Congress what became known as the Lee Resolution. The Lee Resolution proposed three things to the Congress at the direction of the Virginia Convention.

The three things were:

1. a Declaration of Independence from Great Britain
2. that alliances with foreign powers against Britain should be sought out and
3. that provision should be made for a formal confederation between the thirteen colonies. Committees were set up to study each issue and to present ideas to Congress about how to implement them.

The original US Constitution that was presented in 1787 and ratified by the states had only a few guarantees for individual rights because the main purpose of its writers was to create an effective machinery for federal government. A proposal by Charles Pinckney to include a Bill of Rights on August 20, 1787 had been rejected.

The framers of the Constitution, including James Madison, thought that a Bill of Rights was not necessary because the Constitution already protected individual rights through the division of powers that prevented majorities from grabbing power that they could use against minorities.

All of these problems made many believe that the union could not ultimately be held together without doing something to strengthen the central government. These people were called "Federalists," because of their support for a strong central, or federal, government.

The first two Presidents of the United States, George Washington and John Adams, were Federalists. The third, Thomas Jefferson, was an Anti-Federalist. Anti-federalists generally wanted the central government to be weaker so it did not encroach on the rights of individuals to govern themselves. You can't understand the history of the Bill of Rights without understanding the differences between the Federalists and Anti-Federalists.

However, during the ratification debate, the Anti-Federalists complained that the Constitution failed to protect individual rights. As a concession, the Federalists agreed to the introduction of amendments that will be known as the Bill of Rights soon after the ratification of the Constitution when the First Congress convenes. In addition, Thomas Jefferson, who was absent at the Constitutional Convention, wrote a letter to Madison in December 1787 pointing out that the absence of the Bill of Rights was a grievous mistake.

Despite Madison's original skepticism with regards to the importance of a list of rights, he finally agreed to its inclusion in the fall of 1788. He argued that it could be used by the people in the future to fight against an oppressive government, it is educational, and it could pave the way for the installation of a judiciary that would protect liberties against possible abuses by the other branches of government.

Madison, who was then a Virginia representative, presented his proposed Bill of Rights when the First Congress convened in 1789. Some of the proposed amendments were rejected and others were significantly altered. The Ninth Amendment was also included because of the fear expressed by some members of Congress that listing certain rights may mean that those absent in the list were being taken away.