The Penguin Guide to the United States Constitution Part 5

J. Rutledge

Charles Cotesworth Pinckney

Charles Pinckney

Pierce Butler

GEORGIA.

William Few

Abr. Baldwin

NEW HAMPs.h.i.+RE.

John Langdon

Nicholas Gilman

Ma.s.sACHUSETTS.

Nathaniel Gorham

Rufus King

CONNECTICUT.

Wm. Saml. Johnson

Roger Sherman

NEW YORK.

Alexander Hamilton

NEW JERSEY.

Wil. Livingston

David Brearley

Wm. Paterson

Jona. Dayton

PENNSYLVANIA.

B. Franklin

Thomas Mifflin

Robt. Morris

Geo. Clymer

Thos. FitzSimons

Jared Ingersoll

James Wilson

Gouv. Morris

AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSt.i.tUTION.

The framers of the original Const.i.tution a.s.sumed that it was not necessary to include a "bill of rights" in their proposed plan for the union. The ostensible reason for the omission was that most of the state const.i.tutions already possessed bills of rights, and therefore the inclusion of a bill of rights in the federal Const.i.tution would be redundant. Another, more compelling reason may have been that when the idea of a bill of rights was raised in early September by Virginia delegate George Mason, the members of the Convention, tired and desperate to return home, feared that a debate on the subject might extend their stay in Philadelphia by many weeks, if not months.

The omission of a bill of rights proved to be both a tactical and strategic error. When the Const.i.tution was submitted to the states for ratification, many of the critics of the Const.i.tution pointed to the absence of a bill of rights as a fatal flaw in the doc.u.ment. As a consequence, the supporters of the Const.i.tution, who called themselves Federalists, came forward with a promise to make the drafting of a bill of rights the first item of business when the new Congress convened after the ratification of the Const.i.tution. On September 25, 1789, Congress presented to the states twelve amendments, ten of which received the necessary approval of three-quarters of the states on December 15, 1791. It is those ten amendments that are commonly referred to as the Bill of Rights. One of the two amendments not approved, dealing with congressional representation, has not proved of any significance in the operation of the Const.i.tution. The other, dealing with congressional salaries, was eventually incorporated into the Twenty-seventh Amendment.