Development Of The Bill Of Rights

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

The United States of America has always been known throughout the world as the land of the free. The men and women of this country enjoy many different rights and privileges that others in far away countries only dream of. These everyday freedoms are common knowledge to those who live here, but they are also enjoyed to an extent that many do not realize how important they really are. The idealistic idea that these are our natural born rights has been implanted inside our heads throughout our life time, however the path to achieve these liberties was not an easy one. The beginning of our freedoms in America started with the words "All men are created equal" from the Declaration of Independence. From that point up to the creation of our Bill of Rights, the struggle for freedoms would possess the nation to inherit many diffrerent reforms and ideas to create the ideal society that the nation desired during the tyranny of England.

To completely understand the significance of how the Bill of Rights was created, we have to first look at the developments of legislation in America. The American Revolution ended with three men signing a peace treaty alone in a hotel room in Paris (Blohm). The Declaration of Independance became a symbol for the development of a democratic nation. However, the pursuit of democracy in the late 1700s saw little truth to the words of the founding fathers on equality. African Americans were not included in the "all men" of the Declaration of Independandance, as the infant nation was in a fragile state and any sort of internal conflict that would spark through given rights of African Americans would destroy the hard earned nation. Women were in the same position as they were given little thought towards in the ideas of civil rights. In the view of society, they were still seen as inferior and only valuable for the duties of a mother.

In 1776, the nation began taking the steps to creating its own government.The formation of a new nation required a new legislation as the foundation for the government. As many as 10 states have already written their own constitutions to limit any sort of oppressive powers of government.The majority of states created bicameral legislators, and lowered the qualifications of the people to vote, increasing the amount of white property owning voters. The Second Continental Congress was formed during the times of revolution as a form of government represented by all thirteen American colonies. A commitee was called up to set up the creation of a new form of constitution in June of 1776, and the first draft was presented a month later by John Dickinson of Delaware one month later (Vile). This draft would be revised and sent to states to ratify in 1777, and the last state to ratify this new legislation would be Maryland in 1781. This final acceptance would create the document known as the Articles of Confederation, which would provide the first form of constitutional legislation in America. It created a unicameral house in which delegates were elected from each state and all had a single vote per state.

The Articles of Confederation were an important first step in setting in motion the events that would lead to the development of the constitution. One of the biggest problems of the Articles of Confederation was that it created a weak government. The Articles outlined the rights that the states had in their descision making and created a loosely connected nation in an attempt to keep peace. The people were not ready for a strong government watching over them, as they were afraid of creating another oppresive monarchy. Therefore states rights outweighed the power of congress. The Articles of Confederation directly state in article II that  "Each state retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every power, jurisdiction and right, which is not by this confederation expressly delegated to the United States, in Congress assembled" (Articles of Confederation). This quote embodies the power that the states possess during the time. Many states could (and did) ignore their obligations to pay taxes to congress, leaving the government with almost no substantial way to pay debts. Congress could not regulate interstate commerce as some states began increasing taxes on imported goods from other states, and other powers were severly limited to the requirement of assent by nine or more states (Vile). The new government could not even raise an army, which seriously limited its power.

The Articles of Confederations inability to raise money led to serious economic instability and social unrest in the new nation. Increasing debts would continue to go unpaid, as veterans were not paid for their service during war, and many merchants who were at a loss of money due to their overstretching in the war effort. The governments inability to pay the veterans of the nation led to an important uprising known as Shay’s Rebellion. Beginning in 1786, many farmers of Massachusetts who were mostly revolutionary veterans were dealing with foreclosure and tax burdens. A war veteran named Daniel Shays led many agitated farmers to march and demand relief from the state. This rebellion was ended with a small battle between a raised army from wealthy community members and the veteran farmers, with a few being killed. However the impact of the rebellion was severe. It displayed just how weak the government was and the need for a revision upon the Articles of Confederation.

The failures of the Articles of Confederation set in motion the events that would lead to the creation of the United State’s Constitution and Bill of Rights. The United States Congress called for a revision of the Articles of Confederation, and the famous Constitutional Convention was held in 1787. Delegates were sent to represent their individual states, a total of fifty-five in all from all states except for Rhode Island, although a total of seventy-four delegates were chosen to represent. The members of the Constitutional Convention were seen as an impressive group of men with the majority having previous experiences in government, among them important figures such as George Washington, who was picked to lead the convention. These brash figures took a bold and daring move when deciding they would revise the Articles of Confederation by completely throwing it out. However, a brand new document meant a brand new playing palette for the delegates to paint upon T he members of the constitutional convention, regardless of how impressive they seemed to be, debated openly and harshly upon new policies. These debates began the lasting struggle between the Federalists and Anti-Federalists. Federalists believed in a strong national government with checks and balances shared with the state (Starks). The Anti-Federalists supported stronger state governments with a weaker central government. The two parties were on opposite sides of a spectrum in their terms of relevant thinking. These were not the only sort of debates that flared up during the convention. There was also the debates on representation in government where the two plans, the Virginia Plan which favored representation by population, and the New Jersey Plan which favored equal votes for states, were staked head to head until compromise came from the Connecticut Compromise.

The final draft of the Constitution consisted of a government based on three branches of government; the Executive, which were the powers of the president, the Legislative, with both the House of Representatives and the Senate, and the Judicial which held the court system. The Grand Compromise led to equal representation in the Senate and representation by population in the House of Representatives. The process of ratifying the constitution required voting through the states, but this caused serious debates within the states. Many Federalists could not win the favor of the citizens without something an assurance of their rights. The last of the states to ratify the constitution was not surprisingly Rhode Island, which refused to send delegates to the constitutional convention in the first place. However when the constitution was finally ratified by nine of the twelve states on June 21, 1788, another issue was still unsolved between the federalists and antifederalists on the rights of the people.

The ratifying of the constitution was finally achieved in 1787, however its lack of of the specific rights of the people led to the rallying of the Antifederalists. The Federalists who supported the constitution were backed by the influential support of George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and James Madison.The Antifederalists were mostly consisted of the poorer classes of society, with prominent leaders such as Samuel Adams, Patrick Henry, and Richard Lee. This group of backcountry protesters lashed out against the Constitution for not completely listing the rights of the people.Many Federalists believed that the Bill of Rights was unecessary and would only serve to jeopradize the new Constitution (Vile). In an attempt to appease the Antifederalist’s protests and gain the favor of the states that did not ratify the constitution, James Madison took it into his own hands to begin the draft of the Bill of Rights.

James Madison was heavily influenced by the Virginia Declaration of Rights when he began the process of writing the Bill of Rights. Madison initially proposed forty-two individual rights spread out through nine amendments (Vile). The individual freedoms of the people in the first eight amendments were all included foremostly in Madison’s draft, and when submitted to Congress, four of his amendments dealing with the peoples right to alter the government, giving states freedom of conscience and press, limiting appeals to the supreme court, and seperation of powers (Vile).

During the ratification of the

The Significance of the Bill of Rights

The Bill of Rights is one of the most important documents in American history, as it symybolizes the virtues that our country is founded upon. The long struggles that the country went through to achieve their independance were based on solidifying their rights as people in a nation that they represented. In today’s terms our rights are something that are given obviously without a second thought. The hard earned battles that were won to achieve the freedoms that we take so easily for granted had put our country in a heavily burdened and devised states for years to come.

The debates over the inclusion of a the Bill of Rights divided the new nation almost as much as it will in the civil war. The fear of tyranny and unjust laws put the many Antifederalists in a panic for unfair representation. When the possibility of being controlled again was present so soon after the break from Britain, a frenzy of disbelief and protesting swept up from the displeased citizens on not having their own rights truely set in stone. If the Bill of Rights had not presented itself as the people demanded, another wave of insurrection could quite easily spread from the unsatisfied members of the thirteen colonies.

However the most significant part of the Bill of Rights is the fact that it contains all the rights that we are given today. It gives us the freedoms to express ourselves and be sure that we will not suffer from any injustices that had been experienced in the past. The Bill of Rights is what gives off the impression that America is the country where people are able to pursue their dreams, and allows for the diversity that makes America so unique today. Its the document that allows us to live our lives the way we please to a degree that we are lawful citizens of the nation.

The freedom that is experienced in the United States is something that not everyone has, which is why it is so important in the first place. We take the rights we have for granted in this day in age, but not everyone experiences fair treatment. This is what makes America one of the greatest nations, as it has a set of virtues that are not warped or refuted, and it bases itself on them. The people who fight for our nation are called freedom fighters because of the rights we experience and how we believe they are the rights everyone deserves. The Bill of Rights is not just an a document of what we believe we are entitled to, it is the foundation of America that we base our virtues upon as a nation.

What if?

When the Constitution was finally ratified in 1788, the last hurdle between its full potential was the development of a Bill of Rights to explicitly state the rights of the people. The Bill of Rights were heavily advocated by the lower classes of society who bared the greatest resentment to the oppression from the government. What if their demands had been repealed, and a Bill of Rights, or any similar of document of the sort, had never been established?

The Antifederalists viewed the Constitution without a solidified statements on the rights of the people as an affront to the freedom that the nation had just recently obtained. The debates upon creating the document seperated the nation into the poor versus the rich, with the poor believing the government would begin another tyrannical reign all over again. If the Bill of Rights was not actually created and brought into the Constitution, the leaders of the antifederalists would surely be prepared to fight again for their freedoms.

Another war inside the country itself would change the history books drastically. If the Antifederalists were able to actually rally enought that they were to start a civil war of the rights of the people while the nation was so weak, the country might not even exist today. Because of the debt from to the French and the cut off ties from the majority of European markets, the new nation would have to coordinate completely on its own for the time after the revolution. With the nation at such a shaky infancy, a civil war inside the country itself would create a disaster. The country would be fighting and trying to supply a war fund against its own people. They would have to first develop an army due to the newly aquired rights of the government, and then they would have to create some sort of way to make money through tarriffs and taxes. The stress that a civil war would bring upon the country in its infancy would destroy it to a point where it could also be taken back by Britain almost immedietly. Fighting against themselves, any European country could attempt to intervene and take out and claim the nation as their own. We may not even be in America anymore.

Along with the threat of losing the nation, we would not have any of the rights that we have today. We could possibly have ended up in an absolute monarchy during the twenty-first century. Our entire way of life could possibly have changed, and it could quite surely end up that I would not even live in the land of the free anymore.

What if?

James Madison was one of the most important men in the development of the Constitution and especially the Bill of Rights. His desire to resolve conflicts were one his greatest aspects as he created the Bill of Rights. However what if James Madison’s views were in favor of the Antifederalist’s viewpoint? If James Madison has taken the position of an Antifederalist instead of a Federalist himself, the Bill of Rights may not have been the same as it was all those years ago.

Although James Madison took into consideration the viewpoints and desires of the Antifederalists when he began writing the amendments for the Bill of Rights, having the views of an Antifederalist completely would have changed the Bill of Rights drastically. The views of Antifederalist were that of government-fearing social advocates, who believed that state power should remain at a larger point. If James Madison had adopted into that viewpoint then the Bill of Rights may have pushed more into the individual rights of the people. Madison may have gone to more lengthy measures to advocate more civil liberties to the people. Although this may not seem as a bad thing, having more liberties to enjoy, unbound freedom can certainly amount to chaos. If the Antifederalist viewpoint dominated the Bill of Rights, the government would be in a similar condition as it was with the Articles of Confederation. The people would most likely have too much power and the government would be at the mercy of the whims of almost every single person in the country. The nation could quite possibly have turned into an entire system based upon popular soveirgnty, solely due to the fear of the government having the power to make descisions.

Summary

I chose this topic because of the importance of rights to me personally. This country is known to be one of the greatest and most free counties in the world, and that gives me the opportunity to feel at home here. The Bill of Rights is the basis of this countries pursuit for freedom and liberties, and it is one of the most important pieces of work today. Many people take these rights for granted because they honestly can not see any other sort of lifestyle outside of their sheltered homes. It has a special significance to me because I know about life outside of America and how lucky we are that we have something like the Bill of Rights.

Researching the Bill of Rights added onto the knowledge that I already possessed. It obviously a topic we have already explored in APUSH, but researching it more in depth gave me more perspective on its significance. I began to learn more on why the Bill of Rights came into effect instead of just Antifederalists demanding it. I learned how important the rights of the people were in the 18th century as they constantly struggled under the weight of oppresive government. I also learned more on the basis of the Bill of Rights, how it orginated from the Virginia Declaration of Rights and the Magna Carta.

The most important thing I believe I learned from my research was how significant the Bill of Rights has become today in comparison to the late 1700s. The Federalist party believed that the Bill of Rights was not needed, and ultimately the Antifederalists were not supported very thoroughly. Many people in the 1800s did not even believe the Bill of Rights held much influence on the actual rights of the people. However in the 21st century I can see how the Bill of Rights has taken a very important root in the basis of our lives. We are quick to act against any agent of injustice that could infringe upon our rights and are much more involved in giving these rights to others.

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Works Cited

"Bill of Rights." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2012. Web. 7 Dec. 2012.

<http://americanhistory.abc-clio.com>

Blohm, Craig E. "The new nation in trouble." Cobblestone Dec. 2007: 2+. General Reference Center GOLD. Web. 8 Dec. 2012.

Constitutional Convention." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2012. Web. 8 Dec. 2012.

<http://americanhistory.abc-clio.com>

Vile, John R. "Articles of Confederation." American Government. ABC-CLIO, 2012. Web. 7 Dec. 2012.<http://americangovernment.abc-clio.com>

Vile, John R. "Bill of Rights." American Government. ABC-CLIO, 2012. Web. 10 Dec. 2012.

<http://americangovernment.abc-clio.com>

Vile, John R. "Ratifying the Constitution (Overview)." American Government. ABC-CLIO, 2012. Web. 7 Dec. 2012. <http://americangovernment.abc-clio.com>