The anniversary of the effective date of ratification of the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution, Dec. 15, 1791, has since been celebrated as Bill of Rights Day. It is worth reviewing how they came to be adopted. We have the *Documentary History of the Bill of Rights* <http://www.constitution.org/dhbr.htm> --- with all the important documents and steps in the adoption, together with commentary on it.
It is important to understand that for the Founders, the Bill of Rights (except for the $20 rule of the 7th Amendment) did not add to or change the meaning of the original Constitution. They were only clarifications of it (as would be the later 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments, except for their enforcement clauses). That provides an important clue to how to interpret the original Constitution, which was intended to be very literally and narrowly. -- Jon ------------------------------------------------------------------- Constitution Society 2900 W Anderson Ln C-200-322, Austin, TX 78757 512/299-5001 www.constitution.org [email protected] ------------------------------------------------------------------- [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
