US House of Representatives Adopts Bill of Rights Proposal

Background. The Bill of Rights was proposed following the often bitter 1787–88 debate over the ratification of the Constitution, written to address objections raised by Anti-Federalists. Representative James Madison studied the deficiencies of the Constitution pointed out by Anti-Federalists and crafted a series of corrective proposals, hoping to preempt a second constitutional convention that might undo the compromises of 1787 and risk dissolving the new federal government.

House Consideration and Approval. Federalist representatives attacked Madison's proposal, fearing that amending the Constitution so soon after its implementation would suggest governmental instability, and members such as Fisher Ames warned that prolonged dissection of the constitution before the public galleries could shake public confidence. After a procedural battle in which the amendments were initially sent to a select committee, the House agreed to take the proposal up as a full body beginning on 21 July 1789. The eleven-member committee made significant changes, eliminating most of Madison's preamble and adding the phrase "freedom of speech, and of the press". The House debated the amendments for eleven days; Roger Sherman of Connecticut persuaded the House to place them at the Constitution's end so the document would "remain inviolate". The amendments, revised and condensed from twenty to seventeen, were approved and forwarded to the Senate on 24 August 1789.

Aftermath. The Senate condensed the seventeen amendments to twelve, approving them on 9 September 1789, though Madison's proposal to apply parts of the Bill of Rights to the states was eliminated. A House–Senate conference committee convened on 21 September 1789, issued its report on 24 September, and Congress approved the final twelve articles by joint resolution on 25 September 1789, submitting them to the states on 2 October 1789.