Honor Bill of Rights Day, celebrate democracy
The National Archives Building in D.C. is dedicated to displaying and protecting the printed foundational documents that created and sustain our Republic: The Declaration of Independence, The Constitution, and the Bill of Rights.
Eight days after Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt signed a Joint Congressional Resolution naming Dec. 15 Bill of Rights Day, to remind U.S. citizens as to the reason America as a democratic country would engage in a world struggle to fight against totalitarianism.
For more than two centuries, the Bill of Rights has shaped and been shaped by what it means to be American.
States demanded a Bill of Rights
The original, unamended Constitution was by itself, a remarkable achievement, establishing a revolutionary structure of government that put power in the hands of the people.
The Constitution was officially ratified June 21, 1788, without a Bill of Rights. During the ratification process that absence emerged as a central part of the ratification debates.
The states, seeking a Bill of Rights, by amending the Constitution, “expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added: And as extending the ground of public confidence in the Government, will best ensure the beneficent ends of its institution.”
By Dec. 15, 1791, Articles 3 to 12, were ratified by three-fourths of the state legislatures, and these constituted the first ten amendments of the Constitution, known as the Bill of Rights.
What are the first 10 amendments about?
The Bill of Rights, lists the most important freedoms and rights of the United States. Defining civil liberties and categorizing prohibitions on governmental power protecting those rights against infringement from officials and fellow citizens to safeguard your individual liberty.
● Amendment 1: Freedom of religion, speech, and the press
● Amendment 2: The right to bear arms
● Amendment 3: The housing of soldiers
● Amendment 4: Protection from unreasonable searches and seizures;
● Amendment 5: Protection of rights to life, liberty, and property
● Amendment 6: Rights of accused persons in criminal cases
● Amendment 7: Rights in civil cases
● Amendment 8: Excessive bail, fines, and punishments forbidden
● Amendment 9: Other rights kept by the people
● Amendment 10: Undelegated powers kept by the states and the people.
Circulation of this newspaper, publishing this opinion piece, abortion rights, peaceful demonstrations, gun rights, jury trials, protection of individual property, religious practice are but a few of the daily celebrations of being an American by allowing our liberty, through the living spirit of the Bill of Rights.
Raymond Thomasson, a lifelong Nashvillian, a former municipal government and Tennessee State Employee, is a recently retired association executive, and government relations official for the soft drink industry.