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Background information:br /
- based on an important debate in America concerning the political nature of the newly-
founded nation
- a new nation was formed with a centralized government to coordinate national and
foreign policy
- 1787 state delegates drew up the Constitution, signed by 39 of the 55 delegates
- George Mason, the author of the Declaration of Rights of Virginia, who refused
to sign the Constitution, stressed the importance of a document protecting the
civil liberties and rights of the individual
- final draft of the Constitution, which was sent to the states for ratification, did not
include a Bill of Rights
- federalists managed to win over the advocates of a Bill of Rights by promising
to support their demands
- Massachusetts made an addition of 10 amendments protecting individual liberty,
a condition of its ratification, and other states followed
- 1789, First Congress, the feeling in favour of adopting the amendments was such that
Congress set about drafting them
- 1791 official addiction to the Constitution, after most of the states had ratified them,
and they were given the name "Bill of Rights"
Content:
- is divided into 10 amendments:
1.) - the Congress is not allowed to enact laws, which prohibit the freedom of speech,
or of the press, or the right of the people to assemble peaceably..
2.) - right to keep and bear arms, necessary for the protection of the free state
3.) - the soldiers should never be quartered in people´s houses without the agreement
of the owner
4.) - consent of the owner, people´s property is unviolable
5.) - anyone has the right of a fair trial, no property should be removed without
compensation
6.) - in a trial the judge has to abide by the law, the trial should be in the district, where the
crime has happened, witnesses are needed
7.) - no trial should be re-examined in any other court of the United States
8.) - no cruel or unusual punishments for condemned men
9.) - the certain rights in the Constitution shall not be refused by the people
10.) - the powers are reserved to the state, or to the people
Sources:
- Britain and America-Tradition and Change 1989 Cornelsen
- American Life and Institutions 1987 Klett-Verlag
- Declaration of Independence 1992 United States Information Agency
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