Ten Amendments That Made the Deal

When the Constitution was sent to the states in 1787, it contained no bill of rights. Supporters argued that a government of limited, enumerated powers did not need one. Opponents — the Anti-Federalists — were unconvinced, and several states ratified only with the understanding that amendments would follow.

In 1789, during the First Congress, James Madison drew on proposals from the state ratifying conventions and on existing state declarations of rights to draft a set of amendments. Congress debated, combined and trimmed the list and sent twelve proposed amendments to the states.

Ten of those twelve were ratified by the necessary number of states when Virginia approved them on December 15, 1791. That date is now observed as Bill of Rights Day.

The two that did not succeed at the time are themselves interesting history. One, concerning congressional pay, was eventually ratified in 1992 as the Twenty-Seventh Amendment. The other, about the size of the House, never was.

The Second Amendment's place in this list reflects how seriously the founding generation took the right to keep and bear arms. It was grouped with freedom of speech, religion, the press and assembly, and with protections against unreasonable searches and quartering of soldiers.

Originally, the Bill of Rights restrained only the federal government. It would take the Fourteenth Amendment, ratified in 1868, and a long series of court decisions before most of its protections applied against the states as well — a story continued on the next pages.