{"data":{"description":"Jefferson wrote James Madison that he was concerned about “the omission of a bill of rights… George Mason, author of the Virginia Bill of Rights, refused to sign the document,","title":"Bill of Rights: 'Essential Civil Liberties' Of The People","post_type":"page","content":"\u0026nbsp;\r\n\r\nAs Washington was inaugurated as America's first president and the infant nation set about to establish a strong government, memories of civil rights violations during the colonial period were still vivid. However, in the draft constitution submitted to the states for ratification relatively few basic rights were included.\r\n\r\nThomas Jefferson, U.S. Minister to France at the time, wrote James Madison that he was concerned about \"the omission of a bill of rights....providing clearly....for freedom of religion, freedom of the press, protection against standing armies, and restriction against monopolies.\"A number of prominent Americans were alarmed at the omission of individual liberties in the proposed constitution. George Mason, author of the Virginia Bill of Rights, refused to sign the document, as did Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts.\r\n\r\nAware of the lack of these provisions, George Washington urged Congress in his first inaugural address to propose amendments that offered \"a reverence for the characteristic rights of freemen and a regard for public harmony.\"\r\n\r\nMotivated by these leading Americans, Congress responded by submitting Amendments to the Constitution providing for essential civil liberties. They were officially proposed on September 25, 1789. Of the original twelve, Articles 3-12 were ratified. Accordingly, in 1791 these articles became the first ten amendments to the Constitution.....known collectively as The Bill of Rights.\r\n\r\nHere are the original twelve amendments as they appear in The Laws of The United States of America, printed by Richard Folwell, Philadelphia, in 1796.\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"hr\" style=\"color: #990000;\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003cstrong\u003e \u003c/strong\u003e\r\n\u003ctable class=\"bill\"\u003e\r\n\u003ctbody\u003e\r\n\u003ctr\u003e\r\n\u003ctd\u003e\u003ca style=\"color: #990000;\" href=\"/earlyamerica/freedom-documents/bill-rights/bill-rights/\"\u003e\u003cimg src=\"/images/earlyamerica/bill1.jpg\" alt=\"Bill of Rights page 1\" width=\"100\" height=\"196\" /\u003e\u003c/a\u003e1\u003c/td\u003e\r\n\u003ctd\u003e\u003ca style=\"color: #990000;\" href=\"/earlyamerica/freedom-documents/bill-rights/bill-rights-2/\"\u003e\u003cimg src=\"/images/earlyamerica/bill2.jpg\" alt=\"Bill of Rights page 2\" width=\"200\" height=\"100\" /\u003e\u003c/a\u003e2\u003ca style=\"color: #990000;\" href=\"/earlyamerica/freedom-documents/bill-rights/bill-rights-3/\"\u003e\u003cimg src=\"/images/earlyamerica/bill3.jpg\" alt=\"Bill of Rights page 3\" width=\"176\" height=\"100\" /\u003e\u003c/a\u003e3\u003c/td\u003e\r\n\u003ctd\u003e\r\n\u003ctable\u003e\r\n\u003ctbody\u003e\r\n\u003ctr\u003e\r\n\u003ctd\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\r\n\u003c/tr\u003e\r\n\u003c/tbody\u003e\r\n\u003c/table\u003e\r\n\u003c/td\u003e\r\n\u003c/tr\u003e\r\n\u003c/tbody\u003e\r\n\u003c/table\u003e\r\n\u003cul\u003e\r\n\u003cul\u003e\r\n\t\u003cli\u003eThe complete \u003ca style=\"color: #990000;\" href=\"/earlyamerica/freedom-documents/bill-rights/original-bill-rights-text-version/\"\u003etext of the original Bill of Rights\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\r\n\t\u003cli\u003eThe complete \u003ca style=\"color: #990000;\" href=\"/earlyamerica/freedom-documents/bill-rights/bill-rights-text-version/\"\u003etext of the present Bill of Rights\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\r\n\u003c/ul\u003e\r\n\u003c/ul\u003e\r\n\u0026nbsp;","menu":[{"path":"lives-early-america","title":"Famous Lives","submenu":[{"path":"lives-early-america/autobiography-benjamin-franklin","title":"Autobiography of Ben Franklin"},{"path":"lives-early-america/ramsays-life-washington","title":"Ramsay's The Life of Washington"},{"path":"lives-early-america/adventures-col-daniel-boone","title":"The Adventures of Col. Daniel Boone"},{"path":"lives-early-america/true-story-paul-revere","title":"The True Story of Paul Revere"},{"path":"world-early-america/famous-obits","title":"Famous Obits"},{"path":"portrait","title":"Portraits"},{"path":"rare-images/last-men-revolution","title":"The Last Men of the Revolution"}]},{"path":"freedom-documents","title":"Freedom Documents","submenu":[{"path":"freedom-documents/bill-rights","title":"Bill of Rights"},{"path":"freedom-documents/declaration-independence","title":"Declaration of Independence"},{"path":"freedom-documents/u-s-constitution","title":"The U.S. Constitution"}]},{"path":"world-early-america","title":"World of Early America","submenu":[{"path":"bookmarks","title":"Early American Bookmarks"},{"path":"world-early-america/famous-obits","title":"Famous Obits"},{"path":"firsts","title":"Firsts!"},{"path":"rare-images/maps","title":"Maps"},{"path":"rare-images","title":"Rare Images"},{"path":"music1","title":"Music"},{"path":"writings","title":"The Writings of Early America"}]},{"path":"boston-massacre","title":"Boston Massacre"},{"path":"milestone-events","title":"Milestones"},{"path":"early-america-review","title":"The Review"},{"path":"home/teachers-students","title":"Teachers"},{"path":"sitemap","title":"Sitemap"}]},"success":true}