From: Kristi De Simone
Date: 2/21/00
Time: 8:11:28 PM
Remote Name: 155.247.244.80
Kristi De Simone week 6 Text assignment- What is the Bill of Rights and why was it added to the Constitution? The Bill of Rights is the first ten amendments to the Constitution. They were added to the Constitution because in the summer of 1787, delegates from 13 states met in Philadelphia and drafted our first constitution for the United States of America. The first draft set up a system of checks and balances that included a strong executive branch, a representative legislature and a federal judiciary. The constitution was exceptional; it was the start to freedom and diversity of the newly formed United States. Although this was a start there was still its imperfections. For one thing it did not includes a specific bill of right for the people. It specified what the government could do but did not say what it could not do. For another, it did not apply to everyone. The "consent to govern" meant white men only. The absence of a bill of right turned out to be an obstacle to the Constitution's ratification by the states. I t took four long years of intense debate from the Federalists who opposed including the bill of rights claiming it was unnecessary, and the Anti-Federalists, who were afraid of a strong centralized government, refused to support the Constitution without one. American people were just recently freed from the oppressive English monarchy, and did want their new government to extinguish their newly won freedoms of speech, press and religion, or their right to be free from warrantless searches and seizures. The American Bill of Rights which were inspired by Thomas Jefferson and drafted by James Madison, were adopted, and in 1791 the Constitution's first ten amendments became the law of the land. " A bill of rights is what the people are entitled to against every government on earth, general or particular, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inference," said Jefferson. The results of the Bill of Rights are visible every day to Americans. When given we take these rights for granted and when seized we take these rights extremely seriously. Almost 210 years since the Bill of Rights were adapted to the United States Constitution; freedom is were the framers wanted it to be, present and strong in our country.