Jonah Patel
The first 10 amendments to the US Constitution are known as the Bill of Rights and are located in the National Archives, in the Rotunda for the Charters of Freedom. The Charters of Freedom, which include the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States, and the Bill of Rights, have secured the rights of the American people for over two centuries. The Bill of Rights was ratified on December 15, 1791, and includes amendments that guarantee personal freedoms, such as freedom of speech, the right to bear arms, and freedom of religion.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Name | The Bill of Rights |
| Number of Amendments | 10 |
| Date of Ratification | December 15, 1791 |
| Location | National Archives |
| Contents | Specific guarantees of personal freedoms, such as freedom of speech, the right to publish, practice religion, possess firearms, assemble, and other natural and legal rights |
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What You'll Learn
The Bill of Rights
The United States Constitution is composed of the Preamble, seven articles, and 27 amendments. The first 10 amendments, known as the Bill of Rights, were ratified on December 15, 1791, and became Amendments 1 through 10 of the Constitution. The Bill of Rights defines citizens' and states' rights in relation to the government, guaranteeing personal freedoms and placing clear limitations on the government's power.
The amendments in the Bill of Rights include guarantees of freedom of speech, the right to publish, freedom of religion, the right to bear arms, the right to assemble, and other natural and legal rights. For example, the Ninth Amendment states that the listing of specific rights in the Constitution does not deny or diminish other rights not explicitly mentioned. The Tenth Amendment reinforces the principle of federalism by stating that the federal government only has the powers delegated to it by the Constitution, with all other powers reserved for the states or the people.
The concepts and principles enshrined in the Bill of Rights built upon earlier documents, including the Virginia Declaration of Rights (1776), the Northwest Ordinance (1787), the English Bill of Rights (1689), and the Magna Carta (1215). The Bill of Rights, along with the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, are considered instrumental to the founding and philosophy of the United States, securing the rights of Americans and shaping the country's democratic ideals.
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The first 10 amendments
The first ten amendments to the United States Constitution are commonly known as the Bill of Rights. The amendments were ratified on December 15, 1791, and they add specific guarantees of personal freedoms to the Constitution, such as freedom of speech, the right to publish, freedom of religion, the right to possess firearms, and the right to assemble. The amendments also include explicit limitations on the powers of the federal government, stating that any powers not specifically granted to the federal government by the Constitution are reserved for the states or the people.
The Bill of Rights was proposed following the contentious 1787–88 debate over the ratification of the Constitution. It was written to address the objections raised by Anti-Federalists. The twelve articles of amendment were approved by Congress and officially submitted to the Legislatures of the States for consideration on September 28, 1789. The following states ratified some or all of the amendments: New Jersey, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, New Hampshire, Delaware, New York, and Pennsylvania.
The first ten amendments are as follows:
- Freedoms, Petitions, Assembly
- The right to bear arms
- Quartering of soldiers
- Search and arrest
- Rights in criminal cases
- Right to a fair trial
- Rights in civil cases
- Bail, fines, punishment
- Rights retained by the People
- States' rights
The Fifth Amendment, for example, provides several protections for people accused of crimes. It states that serious criminal charges must be brought by a grand jury, and that a person cannot be tried twice for the same offence (double jeopardy) or have property taken away without just compensation. It also guarantees the right against self-incrimination and the right to due process of law. The Sixth Amendment provides additional protections, including the right to a speedy and public trial, an impartial jury, and the right to one's own witnesses and legal representation.
The Ninth Amendment states that listing specific rights in the Constitution does not mean that people do not have other rights that have not been explicitly spelled out. The Tenth Amendment reaffirms that the Federal Government only has the powers delegated to it by the Constitution.
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Ratification by states
The first ten amendments to the US Constitution, also known as the Bill of Rights, were ratified by three-fourths of the state legislatures on December 15, 1791. This means that the amendments were approved by the legislatures of three-fourths of the states, or by state ratifying conventions in three-fourths of the states.
The process of ratifying the amendments began with the First Congress of the United States proposing twelve amendments to the Constitution on September 25, 1789. Ten of these proposed amendments were ratified and became the first ten amendments to the Constitution. The ratified Articles (Articles 3–12) constitute the Bill of Rights.
The Bill of Rights includes important protections for individual liberty, such as freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and the right to bear arms. The amendments were designed to prevent misconstruction or abuse of the Constitution's powers.
The original document proposing the Bill of Rights, including the spelling and punctuation of the time, is on permanent display in the Rotunda of the National Archives Building in Washington, DC. The National Archives Museum also displays the 1789 Joint Resolution of Congress proposing the amendments.
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The US Constitution
The Bill of Rights was ratified on December 15, 1791, and serves to define and protect the rights of citizens and states in relation to the federal government. It was proposed following a contentious debate over the ratification of the Constitution, reflecting the concerns of Anti-Federalists who sought greater guarantees of personal freedoms and limitations on federal power.
The first ten amendments encompass a range of rights, including freedom of speech, the right to bear arms, freedom of religion, protection from unreasonable searches and seizures, the right to a fair trial, and the right to assemble, among others. These rights are not exhaustive, as the Ninth Amendment specifies that the absence of a right from the Constitution does not imply its nonexistence.
The Tenth Amendment further reinforces federalism by stating that powers not explicitly granted to the federal government by the Constitution are reserved for the states or the people. This amendment underscores the limited nature of federal power and the sovereignty of state governments in areas not specifically addressed by the Constitution.
The Bill of Rights is located in the National Archives, specifically in the Rotunda for the Charters of Freedom, which was designed by architect John Russell Pope. This location also houses the original Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States, together known as the Charters of Freedom, which have secured the rights of Americans for centuries.
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The Charters of Freedom
The Declaration of Independence expresses the ideals on which the United States was founded and the reasons for its separation from Great Britain. The Constitution defines the framework of the federal government of the United States. The Bill of Rights defines citizens' and states' rights in relation to the government, including the right to freedom of speech, the right to publish, the right to practise religion, the right to possess firearms, and the right to assemble. The Ninth Amendment states that listing specific rights in the Constitution does not mean that people do not have other rights that have not been spelled out. The Tenth Amendment says that the Federal Government only has those powers delegated in the Constitution.
The documents have been preserved and displayed in massive, bronze-framed, bulletproof, bombproof, moisture-controlled sealed display cases in a rotunda-style room during the day and in multi-ton bomb-proof vaults at night. In 2002, the Charters of Freedom were removed from their original encasements and placed in newly constructed, hermetically sealed encasements in an argon atmosphere with a relative humidity of only 25 to 35% to better preserve the documents.
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Frequently asked questions
The first 10 amendments to the US Constitution are located in the Bill of Rights.
The Bill of Rights is a collection of 12 articles of amendment that define citizens' and states' rights in relation to the government. The first 10 amendments were ratified on December 15, 1791, and became the Bill of Rights.
The first 10 amendments include freedom of speech, the right to publish, practice religion, possess firearms, assemble, and other natural and legal rights. The 10th Amendment, for example, says that the Federal Government only has those powers delegated in the Constitution.
