House agrees to consider amendments as full body
- When
- 21 July 1789
- Where
- United States House of Representatives
After initially forwarding the amendments to a select committee, the House agreed on 21 July 1789 to take up Madison's proposal as a full body.
Federalist representatives attacked Madison's proposal, fearing that amending the new Constitution so soon after its implementation would create an appearance of instability, and Fisher Ames warned that a prolonged "dissection of the constitution" before the public galleries could shake public confidence. A procedural battle followed: the amendments were initially forwarded to a select committee for revision, but the House then agreed to take Madison's proposal up as a full body beginning on 21 July 1789.
Sources
- United States Bill of Rights Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-06
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.