The Bill of Rights was
adopted 220 years ago on this date, in 1791. The bill is made up of the
first 10 amendments to the United States Constitution, and it was adopted as
one unit. It follows the precedent set by the Magna Carta (1215) and the
English Bill of Rights (1689), both of which were early attempts at ensuring
the rights of citizens against the power of the crown. Much of the credit for
the United States Bill of Rights is due to George Mason, who was an admirer of
the philosopher John Locke. Locke, in his Two Treatises of Government (1689),
argued that government should exist for the protection of individual property,
and that all people were equal in the state of nature. Mason had crafted a
"Declaration of Rights" for Virginia's constitution in 1776, while
serving in that state's legislature. The document impressed James Madison, who
showed it to Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson, in turn, adopted some of its ideas
when he wrote the Declaration of Independence.
In the summer of 1787, the Constitutional
Convention met to craft the United States Constitution. The Anti-Federalists
didn't approve of the document as written because it offered no protection to
individual rights, and they refused to sign it. George Mason said, "I
would sooner chop off [my] right hand than put it to the Constitution as it now
stands." Jefferson wrote to Madison, "A bill of rights is what the
people are entitled to against every government on earth." Eventually, the
Federalists persuaded the Anti-Federalists to sign by promising them they would
address the individual rights matter once the Constitution was ratified. James
Madison's feelings were mixed, but he took up the task of writing a bill of
rights, which he called "a nauseous project," and he introduced it
into the first session of Congress in 1789. After some haggling, the 10
amendments were ratified as one unit, which guarantees, among other things,
freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom from
unreasonable searches and seizures, and the right to a fair trial.
From "The Writer's Almanac"
