His 311

The Bill of Rights: the laws of the land

Samantha Whittemore

HIS 311

May 29, 2013

Mr. Pizor

The Bill of Rights: the laws of the land

We live in a world where rules and laws dictate who is the criminal, but there was a time when laws were set in place to dictate who was innocent. Before laws were constituted, believing in a God different than the majorities could get you stoned or killed and refusing a man in the military a room in your house was a crime. We no longer live in a world like that; we live in a world of fairness and justice. The Bill of Rights, first only being passed for federal government use, are now put in place for the states to abide by also.

The need for the Bill of Rights was because the original constitution contained very few individual rights. “In 1787, delegates from the thirteen states convened in Philadelphia and drafted a remarkable blueprint for self-government—the Constitution of the United States. The first draft set up a system of checks and balances that included a strong executive branch, a representative legislature, and a federal judiciary” (Herman). The constitution focused on what the government could do, but not on what they could not do. Farmers started focusing on establishing an effective federal government. Many proposals to include a bill of rights in the constitution were rejected, causing more debates and conventions. “The farmers and notably James Madison, its principle architect, believed that the constitution protected liberty primarily through its division of powers that made it difficult for an oppressive majorities to form and capture power to be used against minorities” (Linder, 2012).

After the ratification debate, the first congress, and many concessions; a bill of rights was still not being enacted upon. In the first congress, James Madison proposed ten amendments to congressmen. In 1791, inspired by Thomas Jefferson and drafted by Madison, the Bill of Rights was adopted and became the laws of...