THE VOTE ON THE CONSTITUTION.

4

197

be true, it follows that, excluding the negro population1 and taking the census of 1790,2 as a basis, the delegates who voted for the ratification of the Constitution in the State conventions represented about two millions of people, and the delegates who opposed it represented a little over one million. As the number of voters in the country, at this time, was not far from one hundred and fifty thousand, it also follows that the Constitution was in a popular sense ratified by a majority of about fifty thousand votes. The almost imperious demand for amendments and a Bill of Rights clearly enough indicated what subject would head the calendar when Congress should enter upon its duties.

1 Six hundred and ninety-seven thousand eight hundred and ninety-seven slaves and 59,466 free persons of color.

2 Total population 3,929,827.

3 Two million six hundred and sixty thousand seven hundred and thirty-nine.

4 One million one hundred and five thousand seven hundred and twenty-five.

5 Important data relating to the ratifying conventions are contained in the following table:

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 committee of the whole on the business. 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

PRECEDENTS FOR THE AMENDMENTS.

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:

(1) Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776.
State Constitutions:

1776, New Jersey, Preamble; Maryland, I; Vir-
ginia, Bill of Rights, Sec. 2.; Pennsyl-
vania, IV.;

North Carolina, I.;

1777, Vermont, I. 5.; New York, Preamble,

1780, Massachusetts, Preamble and V.;

1784, New Hampshire, I.;

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,
Sec. 3. Robertson, 471.

North Carolina, August 1, Declaration of
Rights proposed, Sec. 3., Elliot, IV. 243.

(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.;