Over 250 years ago, the people who risked the voyage across the ocean to come to America wanted freedom. They wanted a government that was run by the people’s votes, so the people voted in the men who made up the Philadelphia Convention. In 1787, these men wrote the basic laws, the U.S. Constitution, for the new United States. Within 2 years the first Congress began agreeing on additions and changes to the U.S. Constitution, and these additions and changes were known as the Bill of Rights.
The Bill of rights was made to protect the basic rights of U.S. citizens. It promised to give people the freedom of speech, press, assembly, and exercise of religion. It also promised people the right to fair legal procedure and to bear arms. On September 25, 1789, this first Congress Passed the Bill of Rights, but it still needed 10 of 14 states to agree on 10 of the 12 amendments to make it legal. Virginia became that 10th state in December 1791 to agree on 10 of the 12 amendments. This gave the Bill of Rights the two-thirds majority of state ratification that was required to make it legal.
Of the two amendments not ratified, the first one still has not been ratified, while the second was finally ratified in 1992, more than 200 years later!
