individual. But the federalists admitted this defect, and they agreed that, once the Constitution
was ratified, the first thing was to draw up and pass a Bill of Rights which (as a constitutional
amendment) would require the consent of three-quarters of the states and would thus be sure to
satisfy the vast majority.
With this qualification in mind, the ratification procedure began. The first five ratifications
took place December 1787-January 1788: Delaware (unanimous), Pennsylvania (46-23), New
Jersey and Georgia (unanimous), and Connecticut (128-40). In Massachusetts, the two leading
anti-federalists, Sam Adams and John Hancock, negotiated a rider to ratification under which the
state agreed to accept the Constitution on condition it was amended with a Bill of Rights. This
went through in February 1788 (187-168). All the other states adopted this device, and insured
the acceptance of the Constitution, though making it imperative that the rights provisions be
adopted quickly. Maryland ratified in April (63-11), South Carolina in May (149-73), New
Hampshire (57-47) and Virginia (89-79) in June, and New York in July (30-27). That made
eleven states and insured the Constitution's adoption. North Carolina's ratification convention
adjourned in August 1788 without voting, and Rhode Island refused to call a convention at all.
But the virtual certainty that amendments would be introduced guaranteeing rights persuaded
both states to change their minds: North Carolina ratified November 1789 (195-77) and Rhode
Island May 1790 (34-32).
Thus, in the end, the ratification by states was unanimous, and the Constitution was law.
Benjamin Franklin, who had attended every session of the Constitutional Convention and who
had actually fathered the idea that the House should represent the people and the Senate the
states, hailed the adoption of the Constitution with a memorable remark: Our Constitution is an actual operation,' he wrote to a friend in Europe,and everything appears to promise that it will
last: but in this world nothing can be said to be certain but death and taxes.`
Congress now had to enact rights. Some states had already done so, so there were precedents.
The federalists who wrote the Constitution were chary on the subject. Individual rights were
presumed to exist in nature-that was the basis on which the Declaration of Independence had
been drawn up-and a formal, legal statement of them might imply the extension of government
into spheres in which it did not and should not operate. The truth is,' Hamilton wrote in the Federalist,the Constitution is itself, in every rational sense, and to every useful purpose, a bill
of rights.' That was a shrewd point and it may be that enacting individual rights formally has
proved, especially in the 20th century, a greater source of discord than of reassurance. But
Hamilton and the others went along with the general feeling, very strong in some states and
especially in the backwoods and country districts, that rights must be enumerated and spelt out.
Hence Madison, who had originally opposed what he called 'parchment barriers' against the
tyranny of interests or of the majority, relying instead upon structural arrangements such as the
separation of powers and checks and balances, now set about the difficult task of examining all
the amendments insisting on rights put forward at the ratifying conventions, and various bills of
rights enshrined in state constitutions, and coming up with a synthesis. He also had a complete
model in the shape of the Virginia Declaration of Rights (1776), written by the anti-federalist
George Mason. Early in the first session of the new Congress in 1789, Madison produced drafts
of ten amendments. The first amendment, the most important, prohibits legislative action in
certain areas, giving citizens freedom of religion, assembly, speech, and press, and the right to
petition. The next seven secure the rights of property, and guarantee the rights of defendants
accused of crimes. The ninth protects rights not specifically enumerated. The tenth, reinforcing