Skip to content

Creating the Bill of Rights The Documentary Record from the First Federal
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different

Creating the Bill of Rights The Documentary Record from the First Federal Congress Unknown - 1991

by Charlene Bangs Bickford, Kenneth R. Bowling

From the publisher

Aside from the declaration of Independence, with its ringing cries for liberty, no public document has become as sacred to the American people as the Bill of Rights-the first ten amendments to the federal Constitution. Protecting individual freedoms and safeguarding state authority, they officially went into effect on December 15, 1791. Two centuries later the Bill of Rights and its meaning remain lively topics-in the courts, in newspapers, and in classrooms.

Creating the Bill of Rights documents the legislative history of the amendments and the sharp debates they produced in Congress. The volume shows how James Madison earned the title Father of the Bill of Rights while working with other members of the first Federal Congress to secure the gains of the Revolution and put republican theory into practice. It also includes all of the often-colorful letters that the Bill of Rights generated among members of Congress and their constituents.

Taken together, these documents offer important lessons in the history of American liberty and vividly illustrate the divisions that beset the country in its formative years. Published as part of the bicentennial commemoration of the amendments' adoption, Creating the Bill of Rights collects original papers relating to the discussions and decisions that helped shape American civic life.

First line

THE Conventions of a number of the States, having at the time of their adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added: And as extending the ground of public confidence in the Government, will be ensure the benificent ends of its institution

Details

  • Title Creating the Bill of Rights The Documentary Record from the First Federal Congress
  • Author Charlene Bangs Bickford, Kenneth R. Bowling
  • Binding unknown
  • Edition First Edition
  • Publisher The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore
  • Date February 1, 1991
  • ISBN 9780801840999

About the author

Helen E. Veit is associate editor of the Documentary History of the First Federal Congress, 1789-1791; Kenneth R. Bowling serves as co-editor of the DHFFC and is the author of The Creation of Washington, D.C.; Charlene Bangs Bickford, director and co-editor of DHFFC, is the coauthor with Kenneth Bowling of Birth of a Nation: The First Federal Congress, 1789-1791.

Hang on… we’re fetching the requested page.