Bill Of Rights Dbq

1038 Words5 Pages

The Constitution, which was written in 1787, was not fully supported by the citizens of the United States (Buescher). Citizens of the United States felt that their natural rights regarding life and property were not being upheld or protected by the United States Constitution. From a response to these complaints came the Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights, written by James Madison in 1789, holds the first 10 amendments, or alterations, to the United States Constitution. Madison, a member of the United States House of Representatives, proposed the Bill of Rights in response to requests from states and citizens who believed that the Constitution did not protect basic human individual liberties (Bobb). Around its proposal in 1787, the Constitution …show more content…

The 12 amendments were then sent out to the states to be ratified, in which the last 10 were approved quickly and finally. The 10 ratified amendments became the Bill of Rights (Buescher). Madison, in turn, had accomplished his goal of helping adjust the Constitution to where the citizens of the United States felt the government was being protective of their rights and property, and making the Constitution a solid basis for the government of the United States. There were a couple amendments written by Madison that did not make the final ratifications by the states . Among these was the original Amendment 1, which attempted to answer the issue of how members of the House of Representatives would be apportioned to the states. The original Amendment 2 was the other amendment that failed to be ratified, which forbade Congress from providing itself with a pay raise. This amendment was later re-proposed by Gregory Watson in 1982, as he felt that the amendment was just and had not yet been completely shut away from the chance of being ratified. He then pursued the ratification of the original Amendment 2. After finally receiving the numbers from the states that it needed to be passed, it became the 27th (and most recent) amendment to the Constitution

Open Document