Documentary History of
the Bill of Rights

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1.  Table of Sources of the Bill of Rights.
2.   English Bill of Rights, 1689 December 16.
3.   Against Writs of Assistance, James Otis, 1761 February 24.
4.   Virginia Bill of Rights, 1776 June 12.
5.   Amendments proposed by Pennsylvania Minority, 1787 December 12.
6.   Amendments proposed by Massachusetts Ratifying Convention, 1788 February 6.
7.   Amendments proposed by a majority of the Maryland Ratifying Convention, 1788 April 21.
8.   Amendments proposed by a minority of the Maryland Ratifying Convention, 1788 April 21.
9.   Amendments proposed by South Carolina Ratifying Convention, 1788 May 23.
10.   George Mason's Master Draft of the Bill of Rights, 1788 June 9.
11.   Amendments proposed by New Hampshire Ratifying Convention, 1788 June 21.
12.   Amendments proposed by Virginia Ratifying Convention, 1788 June 27.
13.   Amendments proposed by New York Ratifying Convention, 1788 July 26.
14.   Amendments proposed by North Carolina Ratifying Convention, 1788 August 2.
15.   Amendments proposed by the Harrisburg meeting of former members of the Pennsylvania Ratifying Convention, 1788 September 3.
16.   The Question of a Bill of Rights — Letter from James Madison to Thomas Jefferson, October 17, 1788.
17.   Preamble to the proposed amendments, March 4, 1789.
18.   Proposed amendments offered in Congress by James Madison, 1789 June 8.
19.   Debates on the Bill of Rights, House of Representatives,
    8 June , 21 July , 13 , 18-19 Aug. 1789; Annals 1:424-50, 661-65, 707-17, 757-59, 766.
20.   Proposed amendments reported by the Select Committee, 1789 July 28.
21.   Proposed amendments passed by the House of Representatives, 1789 August 24.
22.   Proposed amendments passed by the Senate, 1789 September 9
23.   Amendments proposed by Congress to the States, 1789 September 25.

Twelve amendments were proposed, and ten adopted, effective December 15, 1791. Those ten became known as the Bill of Rights, and their ratification is celebrated as Bill of Rights Day.

Scholarly History and Commentary

•  R. Carter Pittman — Constitutionalist, and scholar of George Mason, a major contributor to the Virginia Declaration of Rights, Declaration of Independence, and Bill of Rights. Collection of his writings.
•    The Lost Original Meaning of the Ninth Amendment, by Kurt Lash, Professor of Law and W. Joseph Ford Fellow, Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, Texas Law Review, Vol. 83, No. 2, December 2004.
•    The Lost Jurisprudence of the Ninth Amendment, by Kurt Lash, Professor of Law and W. Joseph Ford Fellow, Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, Texas Law Review, Vol. 83, February 2005.
•   Presumption of Nonauthority and Unenumerated Rights, by Jon Roland, Begun November 6, 2005, in progress.