Reasons Behind The Bill Of Rights Law Constitutional Administrative Essay

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Chelsea Scoggins

Professor Weisel

US HIST 2111

Reasons Behind the Bill of Rights

The founding fathers of the United States of America formed the Bill of Rights with the purpose of protecting the rights they believed belonged to the American people. They outlined each right that had not been specifically mentioned in the Constitution, to avoid dealing with the abuses of power they had encountered in the past. They believed, as is evident from the rights listed here, that overall, everyone had the rights to opinions, protection and privacy, and a fair trial. Each Amendment has a reason, some experience from the past that the founding fathers wanted to deter from happening again. Passage of the Bill of Rights was critical to healing the political divisions of the 1780s (Roark).

The Anti-Federalists worried that a more powerful central government, rather than power in the states and protection from the federal government, would result in more abuses of power, and a lack of rights of the people; they wanted the majority of the power to remain with the states. Eventually they would reach an agreement, the first ten amendments, the Bill of Rights.

The Federalists wanted to appease the Ant-Federalists, as well as many American citizens, so that the Constitution could be passed and come into effect, making the United States the way it is today. James Madison was placed in charge of writing the rights to be included in the constitution, and decided to base his on the Virginia Bill of Rights, drawing ideas directly from them. He also used George Mason's Virginia Declaration of Rights as a guide. The Virginia Declaration of Rights was a Bill of Rights adopted by the State of Virginia in 1776. Thomas Jefferson had used it as a guide when writing the Declaration of Independence as well (Bill of Rights Purpose). Madison came up with twenty amendments to present, stating in his speech to Congress in 1789:

I wish…that those who have been friendly to the adoption of this constitution, may have the opportunity of proving to those who were opposed to it, that they were as sincerely devoted to liberty and a republican government, as those who charged them with wishing the adoption of this constitution in order to lay the foundation of an aristocracy or despotism.

After he stated his twenty amendments, Congress narrowed them down to twelve to present to the states for ratification, ten of which were ratified by the states, becoming the bill of rights we know today.

The first amendment is one of the most recognizable rights by Americans, as these rights seem obvious, but many don’t know the reason it’s written as it is. It’s written to protect the rights of personal expression, of a personal opinion on things like religion and politics, and the ability to share those opinions, so long as it’s not in a harmful manner. The first amendment reads:

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.

These rights had been taken from the people many times. In England, they had been

made to be either Catholic or Protestant, depending on the wishes of the current King. In early America, most colonial governments had state supported religions. Tax dollars were used to support the state church. Some colonies had laws requiring church attendance. Punishments were meted out to those who did not agree with the tenets and practices of the state church (The Establishment Clause). In England, people had been put in prison for voicing their opinions, not even violent opinions, on politics and religion, and Americans believed this was unacceptable. A voice, whether of the oral or written variety, should not be punished; neither should petitioning the government or having assemblies.

The second, third, fourth, and fifth amendments express the peoples’ rights to protect themselves, their property, and their privacy. The second says that they have the right to guns, the third that the government cannot quarter soldiers in their homes, the fourth that the government cannot search and seize from a private home without a proper warrant, and the fifth says that someone cannot be forced to witness against themselves, nor can the government take private land from them without compensation.

The second amendment was important because if the people were not armed, then they were defenseless against their government should it become corrupt and they need to regain their rights by overthrowing. During the Revolutionary War era, the British recognized the colonists would use their weapons to defend themselves, so they made efforts to confiscate as many weapons as they could. This led to the first battles of the Revolutionary War, Lexington and Concord. These battles erupted when the British were trying to capture the colonists weapons and ammunition stores at Concord (The 2nd Amendment).

The third amendment was another big deal for Americans, as the Intolerable Acts were, at the time, a fairly recent occurrence in Boston, and one of the stipulations of it was that England could house soldiers in their homes, quartering. This issue was also mentioned in the Declaration of Independence, so it’s apparent that they were not happy with this practice.

"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 (United States)." "But upon probable cause" it’s the key phrase in this amendment. The American people had been dealing with what are known as "writs of assistance" from the King. These writs of assistance were basically a reason to search someone’s home without reason, in order to see if they were using smuggled Dutch tea rather than British tea. This amendment made this illegal, instead saying there needed to be a probable cause for search and seizure to receive a warrant.

The fifth amendment has to do with trials and witnesses. In England, people were often forced into false confessions, or tortured into confessing, and even worse, tried again for the same crimes if the King was unsatisfied with the verdict, forcing people to be found guilty. The Americans knew this was unacceptable and made it a point to specifically limit them to one trial per crime. This amendment also deals with government taking land from citizens, and says that in order for the government to take land, its owner must be compensated. The King had often taken land from citizens without compensation or reason.

The sex, seventh, and eighth amendments deal with trials. The English court system had been corrupt for a long time, even though they too had a right to a speedy trial, and the Americans knew it. They wanted to reform the courts and make them fair to the general public. In English history, there were often cases where a person could sit in jail for years before they had a trial, so they included the right to a speedy trial, which was meant to keep these drawn-out jail times from happening. It’s a big deal here in America, "for most violations of a criminal defendant's constitutional rights, a new trial is ordered. For a 6th Amendment Speedy Trial violation, however, new trials are not allowed. If a Speedy Trial violation has occurred, the conviction will be thrown out without a possibility of retrial (The Speedy Trial Clause).

People were also tried in secret and tortured and executed for crimes not publicly expressed, and maybe not even committed, having a jury was very important to the Founders to keep these secret trials from happening. The use of a public trial also adds witnesses and testimonies to the trial, helping both prosecutor and defendant. Witnesses in the courtroom allowed the jury to see the person, whereas in England the witness’ statement was often used as evidence without being presented to the court in person. Often the rule was that a defendant could not have witness, nor could he testify for himself, and having this remedied was very important to them. At the time, most defended themselves in court, but the Right to Counsel was added to ensure that should they desire a lawyer, they were allowed to hire one, for those who weren’t knowledgeable about the law.

The right to trial by jury was so important to the American people, that by the seventh Amendment it had been mentioned three times! The seventh amendment says:

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.

This means that even if the jury is wrong, whether on purpose or accident, like if the jury believed a law was unjust or the evidence was not enough, a person still cannot be tried for the same crime twice, so the ruling cannot be re-examined, as it says. Once declared innocent or not guilty, and there is a difference, a person’s trial is done.

The eighth amendment taken almost verbatim from the English Bill of Rights of 1689, and the idea was popular that bail should be reasonable, though a bail has never been overturned in court, and that inhumane punishments were not to be used. This amendment does not specifically mention the death penalty, as there were differing views on the death penalty between the Founders.

The ninth and tenth amendments deal with the powers of Congress and the States. In the ninth and tenth amendments, the Founding Fathers realized they could not possibly list all of the rights of the people in one single document, so they instead left all other rights to the people and their State governments. The Anti-Federalists needed this amendment to ensure that the government would not abuse their power and take away their rights. They believed that if left to themselves, the Federalists would abuse the fact that certain things were not specifically written as rights of the people. The tenth amendment specifically states:

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.

This kept both the Federalists and Anti-Federalists satisfied because it granted enough power to the central government without taking away too much power from the States and individuals.

The Bill of Rights is an important piece of America’s history, as well as its government. Without it, there would be no way to properly regulate what is and isn’t legal, for both the people and their government. It keeps power in the government, without sacrificing the power of the people to enjoy their essential liberties.