Excerpt:
Bill of Rights
The call for a bill of rights had been the anti-Federalists'
most powerful weapon. Attacking the proposed Constitution for
its vagueness and lack of specific protection against tyranny,
Patrick Henry asked the Virginia convention, "What can avail
your specious, imaginary balances, your rope-dancing, chain-rattling,
ridiculous ideal checks and contrivances." The anti-Federalists,
demanding a more concise, unequivocal Constitution, one that laid
out for all to see the right of the people and limitations of
the power of government, claimed that the brevity of the document
only revealed its inferior nature. Richard Henry Lee despaired
at the lack of provisions to protect "those essential rights
of mankind without which liberty cannot exist." Trading the
old government for the new without such a bill of rights, Lee
argued, would be trading Scylla for Charybdis.
A bill of rights had been barely mentioned in
the Philadelphia convention, most delegates holding that the fundamental
rights of individuals had been secured in the state constitutions.
James Wilson maintained that a bill of rights was superfluous
because all power not expressly delegated to the new government
was reserved to the people. It was clear, however, that in this
argument the anti-Federalists held the upper hand. Even Thomas
Jefferson, generally in favor of the new government, wrote to
Madison that a bill of rights was "what the people are entitled
to against every government on earth."
By the fall of 1788 Madison had been convinced
that not only was a bill of rights necessary to ensure acceptance
of the Constitution but that it would have positive effects. He
wrote, on October 17, that such "fundamental maxims of free
Government" would be "a good ground for an appeal to
the sense of community" against potential oppression and
would "counteract the impulses of interest and passion."
Madison's support of the bill of rights was of
critical significance. One of the new representatives from Virginia
to the First Federal Congress, as established by the new Constitution,
he worked tirelessly to persuade the House to enact amendments.
Defusing the anti-Federalists' objections to the Constitution,
Madison was able to shepherd through 17 amendments in the early
months of the Congress, a list that was later trimmed to 12 in
the Senate. On October 2, 1789, President Washington sent to each
of the states a copy of the 12 amendments adopted by the Congress
in September. By December 15, 1791, three-fourths of the states
had ratified the 10 amendments now so familiar to Americans as
the "Bill of Rights."
Benjamin Franklin told a French correspondent
in 1788 that the formation of the new government had been like
a game of dice, with many players of diverse prejudices and interests
unable to make any uncontested moves. Madison wrote to Jefferson
that the welding of these clashing interests was "a task
more difficult than can be well conceived by those who were not
concerned in the execution of it." When the delegates left
Philadelphia after the convention, few, if any, were convinced
that the Constitution they had approved outlined the ideal form
of government for the country. But late in his life James Madison
scrawled out another letter, one never addressed. In it he declared
that no government can be perfect, and "that which is the
least imperfect is therefore the best government."
From the National
Archives website.
