When Was The Bill Of Rights Added To The Constitution ?
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When America was on the verge of independence during the Revolutionary War, the Second Continental Congress drafted the Articles of Confederation. It laid down specific rules and laws to govern Independent America. There were serious flaws in the Articles giving the State Governments huge amounts of rights and powers while the National Government was reduced to a puppet. This led it an imbalance of power crippling the country’s economy.
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The delegates of different states realized the need to make necessary amendments in the Articles to save the country from an economic disaster. Each of twelve states sent their delegates to Philadelphia. Rhode Island was the only exception. The latter did not want to send any delegate and bring in any changes to the Articles. The Constitution was written and drafted in 1787. While five states immediately accepted the Constitution, the remaining states were very apprehensive and felt that the Constitution would bestow undue powers on the National government and the President, leading to a monarch type Government, similar to the British rule.
In order to refute these fears, the Bill of Rights was formed to provide certain rights to the citizens to protect and safeguard their liberty and freedom. This gave the citizens hope that a tyrannical type of government was not going to be in place after the Constitution’s ratification. The anti federalists seemed to be satisfied with the provision of the Bill of Rights. The federalists on the other hand did not see any reason to include a Bill of Rights when a Bill of a similar nature was already in place in each State’s Constitution. With a final agreement, the Bill of rights was written by the First Congress on September 25, 1789. It was approved on December 15, 1791.
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The first ten amendments made to the Constitution are termed as the Bill of Rights. Anti federalists were against the enforcement of a Constitution and replacing the Articles of Confederation, which had given extreme power to the Federal Governments. They felt the President would misuse power if the Contusion came into effect.