This Bill of Rights Day, Let’s Celebrate the Whole Constitution

Julia Shaw / December 15, 2009

This Bill of Rights day, Let’s Celebrate the Constitution

Many Americans praise the first ten amendments to our Constitution, collectively called the Bill of Rights, as providing the true protection of our liberty.  What if there were no Bill of Rights? Would our fundamental liberties still be protected? Would we still have the rights to speak freely and to worship God according to the dictates of our conscience?

Sure we would!

The Bill of Rights was never considered to be chief guard of our liberty. In fact, many founders argued against including a bill of rights in the Constitution at all. Alexander Hamilton, for one, argued that adding a bill of rights to the Constitution would be dangerous, or at least unnecessary.  Bills of rights, Hamilton wrote in Federalist No. 84, are “stipulations between kings and their subjects…reservations of rights not surrendered to the prince.” (more…)