The Bill of Rights was a specifically negotiated and planned addition to the U. S. Constitution as an assurance to guard against the federal government from becoming too powerful and to protect Individual Rights and there is importance to its PreAmble.
The focus of the Bill of Rights is usually made upon the ten Amendments to the U. S. Constitution, which comprise the Bill of Rights.
The Bill of Rights are the only amendments to the Constitution planned with a PreAmble and presented and ratified as a group of ten amendments.
This PreAmble notes the purpose of the Bill of Rights and refers to the Fifth Article of the U. S. Constitution, which provides for amendments and the requirements for an amendment.
Congress of the United States
begun and held at the City of New-York, on
Wednesday the fourth of March, one thousand seven hundred and eighty nine.
THE Conventions of a number of the States, having at the time of their adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers,
that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added: And as extending the ground of public confidence in the Government, will best ensure the beneficent ends of its institution.
RESOLVED by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, two thirds of both Houses concurring,
that the following Articles be proposed to the Legislatures of the several States, as amendments to the Constitution of the United States, all, or any of which Articles, when ratified by three fourths of the said Legislatures, to be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of the said Constitution; viz.
ARTICLES in addition to, and Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, proposed by Congress, and ratified by the Legislatures of the several States, pursuant to the fifth Article of the original Constitution.
Originally, there were twelve (12) proposed amendments for the Bill of Rights. See the coming TFP article for that info!
-The Founding Project Administrative Staff Writer
Part of the Bill of Rights of The U.S. Constitution, the First Amendment leads our Bill of Rights with the first of the Rights our Founders specifically noted as being unalienable, unable to ever be taken. Here, The Founding Project guest writer, Eric Buss, outlines the basics of this important amendment and list of untouchable Rights which work together to protect freedom. The 1st Amendment to the United States Constitution Proposed: 08.25.1789 Ratified: 12.15.1791 “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 […]
Bill of Rights: The Original Proposed Transcript and the Original Final Ratified Document The transcription included here is the recorded original of the Joint Resolution of Congress PROPOSING the Bill of Rights. These proposed amendments and the final accepted and ratified Bill of Rights document is on permanent display in the Rotunda at the National Archives Museum. The punctuation and spelling for both is the same as the original documents. History: On September 25, 1789, the First Congress of the United States proposed 12 amendments to the Constitution. The 1789 Joint Resolution of Congress proposed the amendments now on display in the Rotunda in the National Archives Museum. Ten of the proposed 12 amendments were […]
Conserving Natural Law In Law III of his Laws of Conservation and Energy, Sir Isaac Newton concluded “To every action there is always opposed an equal reaction: or the mutual actions of two bodies upon each other are always equal, and directed to contrary parts.” This best defines a political term of the same root word, conservatism, as the adherence according to Russell Kirk “to custom, convention, and continuity” through the spices permeating “the principle of variety.” As Edmund Burke too noted in a letter to Sir Hercule Langrishe in 1792, “We must all obey the great law of change. It is the most powerful law of nature, and the means perhaps of its conservation,” though “Conservatives,” opined […]
The average person misses an important point when we refer to these ten amendments as our “Bill of Rights” and thinks that it represents the government deciding to be nice and grant us rights that we wouldn’t have otherwise.
HUGE MISTAKE!
The key words are not “Here are your rights…” but “CONGRESS SHALL MAKE NO LAW…”
The whole basis of the “Bill of Rights” was to impose limits on the government, specifically the federal government. That’s the whole genius of our system that people don’t get! Because of evil in the world, especially evil men, we need government to protect us. However as Washington said, to resort to the government for protection was like utilizing fire; “a fearful master” he called it. Because what prevents the government itself from becoming bad, and evildoers utilizing it? That’s why the constitution provides a limited government.
The problem with thinking that the “Bill of Rights” or anything else related to government as granting us rights, means that the government considers itself in control of what rights we have and don’t have. What they give, they can take away. Look at the constitutions of many dictatorships. The government grants rights at its discretion with the possibility of taking them away, and that’s usually what happens.
You are correct. This is why the US is a republic and not a democracy and why our Constitution was written as it was. In a democracy, the majority can vote away the rights of the minority. In a Republic, individual rights are assured and are unalienable. Our government is controlled by THE PEOPLE. We just don’t always stay diligent with our duty to control it.
