CHAPTER VI. THE FIRST TEN AMENDMENTS. Just before the adjournment of the House of Representatives, on the fourth of May, 1789,1 Madison gave notice that he intended to bring forward the subject of amendments to the Constitution, on the twenty-fifth; but the eighth of June had come, when, rising in his place, and reminding the members of his sense of duty to his constituents in proposing them, he moved to go into comImittee of the whole on the business.3 That amendments should be proposed at an early date had been insistently and quite confidently demanded by eight States. The two hundred amendments and more, which, in one form or another, represented the demands of the Anti-Federalists, were, taken together, an embodiment of public sentiment which the new government could not prudently ignore. Long before the fate of the Constitution was 1 The legislative record of the first twelve amendments is found in the Annals of Congress, 1789-1804, excepting the Annals for 1795-1796. The full title of the Annals is "The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States; with an Appendix, containing important State Papers and Public Documents and all the Laws of a Public Nature" and, for the period of the amendments, consist of ten octavo volumes, published at Washington, by Gales and Seaton, 1834-1852. I have cited them by their short title; the year and subject matter indicate the volume. 2 Annals, 257. 3 AMENDMENTS OF 1789. First Draft as Proposed by James Madison, June 8. (Annals, 451-453.) I. (Amending the preamble by prefixing:) All power is originally vested in and consequently derived from the people (1); Government is instituted and ought to be exercised for the benefit of the people (2) which consists in the en 201 joyment of life and liberty, with the right of acquiring and using property, and, generally, of pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety (3); the people have an indubitable, unalienable and indefeasible right to reform or change their Government, whenever it be found inadequate to the purposes of its institution (4). We the People of the United States, &c., &c., &c. PRECEDENTS FOR THE AMENDMENTS. Precedents: (1) Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776. 1776, New Jersey, Preamble; Maryland, I; Vir- North Carolina, I.; 1777, Vermont, I. 5.; New York, Preamble, 1780, Massachusetts, Preamble and V.; 1786, Vermont, I. VI. Amendments by Ratifying Conventions: 1788, Virginia, June 27, Bill of Rights proposed, Sec. 2. Robertson's Debates, 471. North Carolina, August 1, Declaration of Rights proposed December 2, Documentary History of the Constitution, Vol. II., p. 266, also in Elliot, IV. 243. (2) Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776. State Constitutions: 1776, New Jersey, Preamble; Virginia, Bill of Rights, Sec. 3.; Pennsylvania, V.; Maryland, I. 1777, Vermont, Preamble and I. 6.; New York, Preamble; 1784, New Hampshire, I. 1.; 1786, Vermont, Preamble, and I. 7. Amendments by Ratifying Conventions: 1788, Virginia, Bill of Rights proposed, June 27, North Carolina, August 1, Declaration of (3) Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776. State Constitutions: 1776, Pennsylvania, I.; Virginia, Bill of Rights, Sec. 1. 1777, Vermont, I. 1.; 1780, Massachusetts, Declaration of Rights, I.; 202 PRECEDENTS FOR THE AMENDMENTS. 1784, New Hampshire, I. 1.; 1786, Vermont, I. 1. Amendments by Ratifying Conventions: 1788, Virginia, Bill of Rights proposed, Sec. 1. North Carolina, Declaration of Rights proposed, Sec. 1. (4) Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776. State Constitutions: 1776, Virginia, Bill of Rights, Sec. 3.; Maryland, IV. Pennsylvania, V. 1777, Vermont, I. 6.; New York, Preamble. 1780, Massachusetts, Preamble and Declaration of Rights, VII. 1786, Vermont, I. 7. Amendments by Ratifying Conventions: 1788, Virginia, Bill of Rights proposed, Sec. 3. North Carolina, Bill of Rights proposed, Sec. 3. II. (Amending Art. I. Sec. 2., Cl. 3.) Strike out,-"The number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty thousand, but each State shall have at least one Representative; and until such enumeration shall be made," and insert, Precedents: ........ After the first actual enumeration, there shall be one Representative for every thirty thousand, until the number amounts to ....... after which the proportion shall be regulated by Congress, that the number shall never be less than ........, nor more than ........, but each State shall, after the first enumeration, have at least two Representatives; and prior thereto; remainder of clause unchanged. Amendments by Ratifying Conventions: 1787, Pennsylvania, McMaster and Stone's "Pennsylvania and the Federal Convention," Amend. by Harrisburg Conference, No. II. p. 562. See also No. 10, p. 462, (Dissenting Reasons of the Minority.) 1788, Massachusetts, February 6, Amend. 2, Elliot, II. 177, or Journal of Mass. Convention. (Ed. 1856) 83. |