Ratification of the U.S. Bill of Rights

Background. The Bill of Rights comprises the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution. It was proposed following the often bitter 1787–88 debate over ratification of the Constitution and written to address objections raised by Anti-Federalists. Representative James Madison studied the deficiencies pointed out by Anti-Federalists and crafted a series of corrective proposals, which Congress approved as twelve articles of amendment on September 25, 1789, and submitted to the states.

Congressional Drafting and Submission. After a procedural battle, the House took up Madison's proposal as a full body beginning July 21, 1789. Amendments revised and condensed from twenty to seventeen were forwarded to the Senate on August 24, 1789. Madison's proposal to apply parts of the Bill of Rights to the states was eliminated, and the seventeen were condensed to twelve, approved September 9, 1789. A House–Senate Conference Committee finalized twelve amendments, approved by joint resolution on September 25, 1789, and officially submitted to the state legislatures on October 2, 1789.

State Ratifications. State legislatures acted on the twelve articles through 1789 and 1790: New Jersey ratified Articles One and Three through Twelve on November 20, 1789; Maryland ratified Articles One through Twelve on December 19, 1789; North Carolina ratified Articles One through Twelve on December 22, 1789; South Carolina ratified Articles One through Twelve on January 19, 1790; New Hampshire ratified Articles One and Three through Twelve on January 25, 1790; Delaware ratified Articles Two through Twelve on January 28, 1790; New York ratified Articles One and Three through Twelve on February 24, 1790; Pennsylvania ratified Articles Three through Twelve on March 10, 1790; and Rhode Island ratified Articles One and Three through Twelve on June 7, 1790. Vermont ratified all twelve articles on November 3, 1791, and Virginia ratified Articles Two through Twelve on December 15, 1791, after failing to ratify during the 1789 session.

Significance and Aftermath. With approval by the requisite three-fourths of the fourteen states then in the Union—Vermont having been admitted March 4, 1791—ratification of Articles Three through Twelve was completed and they became Amendments One through Ten. Congress, meeting at Congress Hall in Philadelphia, was informed by President Washington on January 18, 1792. Article One never received approval from enough states, and Article Two, initially ratified by seven states through 1792, was not ratified by another state for eighty years.