Eleanor Finch
The Founding Fathers of the United States include those who wrote and signed the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution. Notable Founding Fathers include George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison. Madison, initially an opponent of the Bill of Rights, introduced a list of amendments to the Constitution on June 8, 1789, and was recognised as the founding era's foremost proponent of religious liberty, free speech, and freedom of the press. The first ten amendments, or the Bill of Rights, were ratified in December 1791.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Name | James Madison |
| Role | One of the Founding Fathers of the United States |
| Proposal | A list of amendments to the Constitution |
| Date of proposal | June 8, 1789 |
| Reasoning | To limit government power and protect individual liberties |
| Focus | Rights-related amendments |
| Number of amendments proposed | 17 |
| Number of amendments passed | 12 |
| Date of passing | October 2, 1789 |
| Number of amendments ratified | 10 |
| Date of ratification | December 15, 1791 |
| Common names | The first ten amendments, the Bill of Rights |
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What You'll Learn
James Madison's amendments
James Madison, along with Alexander Hamilton and George Washington, feared that their young country was on the brink of collapse just a few years after the Revolutionary War. America's first constitution, the Articles of Confederation, gave the Confederation Congress the power to make rules and request funds from the states, but it lacked enforcement powers and the ability to regulate commerce or print money.
Madison, initially an opponent of the Bill of Rights, introduced a list of amendments to the Constitution on June 8, 1789. He proposed a series of nearly 20 amendments, with a focus on rights-related amendments, ignoring suggestions that would have structurally changed the government. Madison's proposed amendments included a provision to extend the protection of some of the Bill of Rights to the states, but the amendments that were finally submitted for ratification applied only to the federal government.
Madison's proposed Bill of Rights included a different version of what became the Second Amendment. It stated: "The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed; a well-armed and well-regulated militia being the best security of a free country: but no person religiously scrupulous of bearing arms shall be compelled to render military service in person." Madison also wanted the entire Bill of Rights interwoven within the Constitution, rather than appended at the document's end, but this did not pass with Congress due to concerns about rewriting the Constitution.
Madison's original 12 amendments were trimmed down by the Senate, and 10 were approved by Congress and sent out to the states by President Washington in October 1789. The first two of Madison's original 12 amendments did not receive enough state ratifications to become law. The first of these amendments would have established how members of the House of Representatives would be apportioned to the states, ensuring that members of the House would continue to represent small constituencies even as the population grew. The second amendment forbade Congress from giving itself a pay raise, and it also failed to gather the required number of state ratifications. However, this amendment was later ratified in 1992 as the 27th Amendment.
Constitution Amendments: States' Power to Ratify
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George Mason's opposition
George Mason was an American planter, politician, Founding Father, and delegate to the U.S. Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787. He was one of the three delegates who refused to sign the Constitution because it lacked a bill of rights.
Mason believed that the convention had given his proposals short shrift in a hurry to complete its work. He was injured in body and spirit after an accident on the road. He sent a copy of his objections to Richard Henry Lee, a member of the Congress. His Objections to this Constitution of Government were published in October 1787 without his permission. In it, he stated that the constitution was useless and that the proposed federal government was not adequate. He believed that if proper amendments were made, the constitution would be a fine instrument of governance.
Mason's writings, including substantial portions of the Fairfax Resolves of 1774, the Virginia Declaration of Rights of 1776, and his Objections to this Constitution of Government (1787) opposing ratification, have influenced American political thought and events. The Virginia Declaration of Rights, which Mason principally authored, served as a basis for the United States Bill of Rights, of which he has been deemed a father.
Mason's idea was to have a system with multiple branches and levels. He also explained the powers of these different parts of the government. The Virginia Constitution was an important model for many other state constitutions as well as the official U.S. Constitution. Mason established many important principles of U.S. government, such as separation of powers, which quickly became central to American democracy.
Amendments: A Historical Timeline of the US Constitution
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The Federalists' support
The Federalists, who believed that a strong central government was necessary to face the nation's challenges, supported the Constitution. They advocated for a strong national government, believing that the people and states automatically kept any powers not given to the federal government. Federalists also believed that the government could only exert the powers specified by the Constitution. James Madison, a key founder, was initially opposed to the Bill of Rights, but he eventually introduced a list of amendments to the Constitution on June 8, 1789, and worked tirelessly to secure its passage. Madison's amendments focused on rights-related changes, ignoring suggestions that would have structurally changed the government.
Alexander Hamilton, another key founder, helped convince Congress to organize a Grand Convention of state delegates to work on revising the Articles of Confederation. The Federalists supported the Constitution because it created a federal system with a national government composed of three separate powers: the executive, legislative, and judicial branches. This separation of powers was intended to prevent the misuse of power and make it difficult for one person, party, or group to gain control of the government.
The Federalists also supported the inclusion of a Bill of Rights in the Constitution, which was added to limit government power and protect individual liberties. The first ten amendments, known as the Bill of Rights, were submitted to the state legislatures in September 1789 and ratified in December 1791. These amendments guaranteed freedoms such as freedom of speech, religion, and the press, as well as the right to a jury trial and the right to keep and bear arms.
Amending the Constitution: The Legislative Branch's Role
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The Anti-Federalists' opposition
The Anti-Federalists were a late-18th-century group in the United States that opposed the creation of a stronger federal government and the ratification of the 1787 Constitution. Led by Patrick Henry of Virginia, they were a loose coalition of popular politicians, small farmers and landowners, shopkeepers, and labourers. They were chiefly concerned with too much power being invested in the national government at the expense of the states, fearing that the new government would threaten their individual liberties and freedoms. They believed that the position of the president might evolve into a monarchy, resembling the governance of Great Britain that they had just overthrown.
The Anti-Federalists played upon these fears in the ratification convention in Massachusetts, where a compromise known as the "Massachusetts Compromise" was reached. Massachusetts agreed to ratify the Constitution with the provision that it be amended with a bill of rights. This was a significant victory for the Anti-Federalists, as it helped secure the adoption of the First Amendment and the other nine amendments that constitute the Bill of Rights.
The Anti-Federalists published a series of articles and delivered numerous speeches against the ratification of the Constitution, known collectively as The Anti-Federalist Papers. They advocated for strong state governments, a weak central government, the direct election of government officials, short term limits for officeholders, accountability by officeholders to popular majorities, and the strengthening of individual liberties. They believed that the central government under the Articles of Confederation was sufficient, or that while the national government under the Articles was too weak, the new government under the Constitution would be too strong.
Amendment History: The 13th Amendment's Constitutional Past
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The Bill of Rights
The Founding Fathers of the United States include those who wrote and signed the United States Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution of the United States. The Constitution was written in 1787 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, by delegates from 12 states, to replace the Articles of Confederation with a new form of government.
The Founding Fathers wanted to set up a fair and balanced government, and they knew early on that they wanted to amend the Constitution. They proposed a national government where power was divided between three separate branches: the executive, legislative, and judiciary. This is called the "separation of powers", which aimed to prevent the misuse of power by ensuring that each branch had its own rules, responsibilities, and powers.
The amendments in the Bill of Rights limit government power and protect individual liberties. For example, the First Amendment protects the freedom of speech and religion, and prohibits Congress from making laws establishing a religion. The Second Amendment protects the right to keep and bear arms, and the Third Amendment states that no soldier shall be quartered in any house without the owner's consent. The Fourth Amendment safeguards citizens' right to be free from unreasonable government intrusion in their homes by requiring a warrant.
The Amendment: Expanding Voting Rights for All
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Frequently asked questions
George Washington is the single person most identified as the "Father" of the United States. He was the commanding general in the American Revolution and the nation's first president.
James Madison is known for introducing a list of amendments to the Constitution on June 8, 1789, and for "relentlessly hounding his colleagues" to secure its passage.
Madison's amendments focused on rights-related changes, such as freedom of religion, free speech, and freedom of the press. He ignored suggestions that would have structurally changed the government.
