Thrive. The Bill of Rights | The Constitution Project. We all know that the Constitution guarantees every American certain basic rights: freedom of speech, freedom of religion, the right to assembly, the right to a jury trial are just some of the rights explicitly protected by our Constitution. But these freedoms weren’t in the original version of the Constitution. In fact, many of the framers of the Constitution were dead set against including them in the document. James Madison, who would become the fourth President of the United States, was the document’s primary author.
Called the “Father of the Constitution,” Madison didn’t think we needed a Bill of Rights and the document that emerged from the Convention in 1787 reflected his conviction. He believed the Constitution as it was written already spelled out what the Federal Government could do – and, he believed, if it wasn’t in that document, it wasn’t any of the Federal Government’s business. No further protection was necessary. Image Gallery Learn more about James Madison. Charters of Freedom - The Declaration of Independence, The Constitution, The Bill of Rights. I Am Not Anonymous - I am a human being and I care. Solutions4theInnocent | Manifesting In The Future.