Page 188 - American Stories, A History of the United States

Mason and Edmund Randolph, who might otherwise remain alienated from the new
federal system. “We have in this way something to gain,” Madison concluded, “and if 6.1
we proceed with caution, nothing to lose.”
The crucial consideration was caution. People throughout the nation advocated a
second constitutional convention to take Antifederalist criticism into account. Madison 6.2
wanted to avoid such a meeting. He feared that members of the first Congress might
use a bill of rights as an excuse to revise the entire Constitution.
Madison carefully reviewed these recommendations and the declarations of rights 6.3
that had appeared in the early state constitutions. On June 8, 1789, he placed before the
House of Representatives a set of amendments to protect individual rights from govern-
ment interference. Madison told Congress that the greatest dangers to popular liberties 6.4
came from “the majority [operating] against the minority.” A committee compressed
his original ideas into twelve amendments, 10 of which were ratified and became known
collectively as the Bill of Rights. For many modern Americans these amendments are bill of rights The first ten
the most important section of the Constitution. Madison had hoped that additions amendments to the Constitution,
would be inserted into the text of the Constitution at the appropriate places, not tacked adopted in 1791 to preserve the
onto the end, but he was overruled. rights and liberties of individuals.
The Bill of Rights protected the freedoms of assembly, speech, religion, and the
press; guaranteed speedy trial by an impartial jury; preserved the people’s right to bear
arms; and prohibited unreasonable searches. Other amendments dealt with legal pro-
cedure. Some opponents of the Constitution urged Congress to provide greater safe-
guards for states’ rights, but Madison had no intention of backing away from a strong
central government. Only the Tenth Amendment addressed the states’ relation to the
federal system. To calm Antifederalist fears, this crucial article specified that those
“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.”
On September 25, 1789, both houses of Congress passed the Bill of Rights. By
December 15, 1791, three-fourths of the states had ratified the amendments. Madison
was proud of his achievement. He had secured individual rights without undermin- Quick Check
ing the Constitution. When he asked his friend Jefferson for his opinion of the Bill of Why did the men who originally
Rights, Jefferson responded with typical republican candor: “I like [it] . . . as far as it drafted the Constitution not include
goes; but I should have been for going further.” a Bill of Rights?

Conclusion: Success Depends on the People
By 1789, one phase of American political experimentation had ended. The people
gradually, often haltingly, had learned that in a republican society, they themselves
were sovereign. They could no longer blame government failures on inept monarchs
or greedy aristocrats. They bore a great responsibility. Americans had demanded a
government of the people only to discover during the 1780s that in some situations, the
people could not always be trusted with power, majorities could tyrannize minorities,
and the best government could abuse individual rights.
Contemporaries had difficulty deciding just what had been accomplished. A writer
in the Pennsylvania Packet thought the American people had preserved order: “The
year 1776 is celebrated for a revolution in favor of liberty. The year 1787 . . . will be
celebrated with equal joy, for a revolution in favor of Government.” But aging Patriots
grumbled that perhaps order had been achieved at too high a price. In 1788, Richard
Henry Lee remarked, “’Tis really astonishing that the same people, who have just
emerged from a long and cruel war in defense of liberty, should now agree to fix an
elective despotism upon themselves and their posterity.”
But most Americans probably would have accepted the optimistic assessment of
Benjamin Franklin. As he watched the delegates to the Philadelphia convention sign
the Constitution, he noted a sun carved on the back of George Washington’s chair.
“I have,” the aged philosopher noted, “. . . often in the course of the session . . . looked at
[the sun] behind the President without being able to tell whether it was rising or setting;
but now at length I have the happiness to know that it is a rising and not a setting sun.”
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