Documentary History of
the Bill of Rights

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  1. HTML Version Table of Sources of the Bill of Rights.
  2. HTML Version Selected Works of the Levellers and their Allies (1645-56).
  3. HTML Version Text Version English Bill of Rights, 1689 December 16.
  4. HTML Version Text Version Against Writs of Assistance, James Otis, 1761 February 24.
  5. HTML Version Text Version Virginia Bill of Rights, 1776 June 12.
  6. HTML Version HTML Version Debates in the Convention of the State of Pennsylvania on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution, 1787 Nov. 20.
  7. HTML Version Text Version Amendments proposed by Pennsylvania Minority, 1787 December 12.
  8. HTML Version HTML Version Amendments proposed by Massachusetts Ratifying Convention, 1788 February 6.
  9. HTML Version HTML Version Amendments proposed by a majority of the Maryland Ratifying Convention, 1788 April 21.
  10. HTML Version HTML Version Amendments proposed by a minority of the Maryland Ratifying Convention, 1788 April 21.
  11. HTML Version Text Version Amendments proposed by South Carolina Ratifying Convention, 1788 May 23.
  12. HTML Version Text Version George Mason's Master Draft of the Bill of Rights, 1788 June 9.
  13. HTML Version Text Version Amendments proposed by New Hampshire Ratifying Convention, 1788 June 21.
  14. HTML Version Text Version Amendments proposed by Virginia Ratifying Convention, 1788 June 27.
  15. HTML Version HTML Version Amendments proposed by New York Ratifying Convention, 1788 July 26.
  16. HTML Version HTML Version Amendments proposed by North Carolina Ratifying Convention, 1788 August 2.
  17. HTML Version Text Version Harrisburg Meeting to Propose Amendments to the Constitution, 1788 September 3.
  18. HTML Version HTML Version The Question of a Bill of Rights — Letter from James Madison to Thomas Jefferson, 1788 October 17.
  19. HTML Version Text Version Preamble to the proposed amendments, 1789 March 4.
  20. HTML Version Text Version Proposed amendments offered in Congress by James Madison, 1789 June 8.
  21. HTML Version Text Version Debates on the Bill of Rights, House of Representatives,
    1789 June 8, July 21, August 13, 18-19; Annals 1:424-50, 661-65, 707-17, 757-59, 766.
  22. HTML Version Text Version Proposed amendments reported by the Select Committee, 1789 July 28.
  23. HTML Version Text Version Proposed amendments passed by the House of Representatives, 1789 August 24.
  24. HTML Version Text Version Proposed amendments passed by the Senate, 1789 September 9
  25. HTML Version Text Version 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.

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Original date: 1999/9/17 —