Once you understand why the Bill of Rights wasn’t in the original Constitution…….
Did you ever ask yourself why there is almost no mention of the rights of the people in the body of the Constitution, and they don’t show up until after it is ratified, in the form of the first ten amendments collectively known as ‘The Bill of Rights’?
Once you understand the history of why the Bill of Rights wasn’t in the original Constitution, you will, at last, have a great appreciation for the wisdom of the authors of that document in regards to protecting the liberty of future Americans from the natural progression toward the ever expanding and encroaching tendencies of fallible human politicians.
Did you think that the subject just slipped the minds of the delegates and no one thought to bring it up? Nope, that’s not what happened. When some of the delegates brought up the idea that some of the rights of the people should be enumerated, Roger Sherman argued vehemently against it. His contention was that since the purpose of the document was to transfer a limited and defined list of powers to the new federal government (Article 1 Sec. 8), the government would not possess the authority to violate the rights of the people. Also, since a complete list of the rights of the people would be of infinite length, it would be redundant and futile to attempt to enumerate them.
Put in today’s terms, it would be like going to Wall Mart with the intention of picking up a few items, and first making a list of everything they carry that you don’t intend to purchase.
It took him several days, but he finally convinced them of the logic of his argument.
Well, copies of the proposed document began to circulate, and there was a general uproar from the public. “Where is the list of rights”?
During the national debate, Hamilton urged for ratification in newspaper editorials that were later incorporated into ‘The Federalist Papers’. About inclusion of enumerated rights, he argued that inclusion would not only be redundant, it could be dangerous, since such a list would of necessity be incomplete, it could lead to the mischief of usurpers to soak up liberties that were not included. If the people would retain the knowledge of what powers the government had, rather than what rights the people had, the people would be better equipped to hold their representatives to task.
Hmmm, who was right? Put another way, if the Bill of Rights was never created, today we would probably have a much smaller federal government and less intrusion into our private lives.
Either way, almost all of those now in power, regularly legislate in direct opposition to the word and the intent of the Constitution and need to be voted out of office at the next opportunity.
Vote Libertarian, the founding fathers would! Attend TEA parties! Ray J. Kozora II Incidental Sounds Co. 2454 Hiller Rd. West Bloomfield, MI 48324 Web: www.incidentalsounds.comPhone: (248)360-8138 Cell: (248)885-2282 E-mail: rjkozora@yahoo.com |