Constitution Week: The Bill of Rights

The members of the Sarah Riggs Humphreys-Mary Silliman Chapter, NSDAR wish to remind you that there will be a week-long celebration next month (September 17-23) to commemorate the signing of our Constitution, 239 years ago!

The U.S. Constitution is the oldest constitution still in active use in the world and forms the basis of our republic, which protects the individual liberties of all citizens through written law.

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The Magna Carta of 1215 was the tenet for liberty in England. John Locke said in 1690 that a government can only rule by consent of the people. A "Bill of Rights" is a list of individual liberties guaranteed by law. To ensure these for all United States citizens, the US Bill of Rights was written at the first meeting of Congress in 1789 and ratified in 1791. They are the first 10 Amendments to the Constitution.

When writing the Constitution, Federalists thought that a Bill of Rights was unnecessary, while the Anti-Federalists, fearing a strong central government, refused to ratify the Constitution unless a Bill of Rights was written.

George Mason, is credited with being the "Father of the Bill of Rights." It took over 2 years for the Bill of Rights to finally be a part of the United States Constitution.

On September 25, 1789, the First Federal Congress of the United States proposed to the State Legislatures twelve amendments to the Constitution. The first two, concerning the number of constituents for each Representative and the compensation of Congressmen, were not ratified.

Articles three through twelve became the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution and contained guarantees of essential rights and liberties omitted in the crafting of the original document. These articles became our Bill of Rights.

Read the Bill of Rights here.

The historic Sarah Riggs Humphreys-Mary Silliman chapter, Inc was founded in 1893. The DAR is a non-profit lineage society; any woman who is lineally descended from an ancestor who aided the patriot cause during the American Revolution may be eligible to join. For more information, visit us on facebook (Sarah Riggs Humphreys Mary Silliman chapter) or email srhmsregistrar@gmail.com.