Documentary History of
the Bill of Rights

Click on the button to get the indicated file format:
HTML		Text	WP	PDF	RTF	Word	Image

1.  Table of Sources of the Bill of Rights.
2.  Selected Works of the Levellers and their Allies (1645-56).
3.   English Bill of Rights, 1689 December 16.
4.   Against Writs of Assistance, James Otis, 1761 February 24.
5.   Virginia Bill of Rights, 1776 June 12.
6.   Debates in the Convention of the State of Pennsylvania on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution, 1787 Nov. 20.
7.   Amendments proposed by Pennsylvania Minority, 1787 December 12.
8.   Amendments proposed by Massachusetts Ratifying Convention, 1788 February 6.
9.   Amendments proposed by a majority of the Maryland Ratifying Convention, 1788 April 21.
10.   Amendments proposed by a minority of the Maryland Ratifying Convention, 1788 April 21.
11.   Amendments proposed by South Carolina Ratifying Convention, 1788 May 23.
12.   George Mason's Master Draft of the Bill of Rights, 1788 June 9.
13.   Amendments proposed by New Hampshire Ratifying Convention, 1788 June 21.
14.   Amendments proposed by Virginia Ratifying Convention, 1788 June 27.
15.   Amendments proposed by New York Ratifying Convention, 1788 July 26.
16.   Amendments proposed by North Carolina Ratifying Convention, 1788 August 2.
17.   Harrisburg Meeting to Propose Amendments to the Constitution, 1788 September 3.
18.   The Question of a Bill of Rights — Letter from James Madison to Thomas Jefferson, 1788 October 17.
19.   Preamble to the proposed amendments, 1789 March 4.
20.   Proposed amendments offered in Congress by James Madison, 1789 June 8.
21.   Debates on the Bill of Rights, House of Representatives,
    1789 June 8, July 21, August 13, 18-19; Annals 1:424-50, 661-65, 707-17, 757-59, 766.
22.   Proposed amendments reported by the Select Committee, 1789 July 28.
23.   Proposed amendments passed by the House of Representatives, 1789 August 24.
24.   Proposed amendments passed by the Senate, 1789 September 9
25.   Amendments proposed by Congress to the States, 1789 September 25.

Twelve amendments were proposed, and ten adopted, effective December 15, 1791. Those ten became known as the Bill of Rights, and their ratification is celebrated as Bill of Rights Day.

Scholarly History and Commentary

•  R. Carter Pittman — Constitutionalist, and scholar of George Mason, a major contributor to the Virginia Declaration of Rights, Declaration of Independence, and Bill of Rights. Collection of his writings.
•    The Lost Original Meaning of the Ninth Amendment, by Kurt Lash, Professor of Law and W. Joseph Ford Fellow, Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, Texas Law Review, Vol. 83, No. 2, December 2004.
•    The Lost Jurisprudence of the Ninth Amendment, by Kurt Lash, Professor of Law and W. Joseph Ford Fellow, Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, Texas Law Review, Vol. 83, February 2005.
•    The Original Meaning of Omission: the Tenth Amendment, Popular Sovereignty, and "Expressly" Delegated Power, by Kurt Lash, Professor of Law and W. Joseph Ford Fellow, Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, Notre Dame Law Review, 2008.
•   Presumption of Nonauthority and Unenumerated Rights, by Jon Roland, Begun November 6, 2005, in progress.
•  Civil Rights Act, by Jon Roland. Proposed amendment to previous civil rights acts to specify the rights to be protected in some detail.