First Amendment

DURING THE DEBATES in the Constitutional Convention in 1787 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the 29 delegates were heatedly divided into two camps. These were the Federalists, like Alexander Hamilton of New York, who advocated a strongly centralized government, and the anti-Federalists, among the most influential, George Mason of Virginia, who preferred a more decentralized administration, such as had prevailed under the earlier 1777 Articles of Confederation. In terms of the relationship between the new government and its people, no area was of more importance than a Bill of Rights. Such a document was considered essential in protecting the rights of the people from usurpation by their own government. In the debates, Mason was concerned that an unfettered government could become a “monarchy, or a tyrannical aristocracy.” Before the Constitution was signed on September 17, 1787, delegates like Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts and George Mason of Virginia would not sign until they had received a promise that a Bill of Rights would follow.

In the debates that followed on ratifying the Constitution by the states, the need for a Bill of Rights attracted widespread support. During the Virginia debates, the concern was voiced that “there be a declaration or bill of rights asserting, and securing from encroachment, the essential and unalienable rights of the people.” “Brutus” wrote in the New York Journal on October 18, 1787, that “in so extensive a republic, the great officers of government would soon become above the control of the people, and abuse their power to the purpose of aggrandizing themselves, and oppressing them.” Even after Pennsylvania's ratification convention voted to approve the Constitution on December 12, 1787, some members were deeply concerned about its fundamental lack of a guarantee for individual freedom. On December 18, 1787, 21 of them signed a dissent, which appeared in the Pennsylvania Packet and Daily Advertiser. In the article, they stated, “the first consideration … is the omission of a bill of rights, ascertaining and fundamentally establishing those unalienable and personal rights of men, without the full, free, and secure enjoyment of which there can be no liberty.”

By July 1788, New Hampshire had ratified the Constitution, and the arena for debate about the Bill of Rights moved into the new United States Congress, with its upper chamber, the Senate, and lower, the House of Representatives.

Within the Congress, James Madison of Virginia, and a future president, had become convinced of the utter necessity of a Bill of Rights. The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) web site on the Constitution states, “by the fall of 1788 Madison had been convinced that not only was a bill of rights necessary to ensure acceptance of the Constitution but that it would have positive effects. He wrote, on October 17, that such “fundamental maxims of free Government” would be “a good ground for an appeal to the sense of community” against potential oppression and would “counteract the impulses of interest and passion.”

Elected as a delegate to the First Congress held under the new Constitution, Madison worked tirelessly for the passage of a Bill of Rights. Originally, 17 articles—or amendments—were debated. Eventually, 12 possible amendments were drawn up, as the framers had with great foresight provided a framework for amending the Constitution during the convention. On September 25, 1789, the 12 amendments were submitted to the states for a second ratification procedure. The National Archives observed that “The first two proposed amendments, which concerned the number of constituents for each Representative and the compensation of Congressmen, were not ratified.”

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