Congress Passes the Bill of Rights; Sends it to the States for Ratification
Congress on this day passed the Bill of Rights and sent it to the states for ratification.
Ratification occurred in December 1791, and December 15th is now celebrated as Bill of Rights Day.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt created Bill of Rights Day in 1941.
Read: Akhil Reed Amar, The Bill of Rights: Creation and Reconstruction (2000)
Read the great new biography of Madison: Noah Feldman, The Three Lives of James Madison (2017)
See an original copy of the Bill of Rights: http://www.wdl.org/en/item/2704/
Read: Richard Lubansky, James Madison and the Struggle for the Bill of Rights (2006)
Learn more about the Bill of Rights at the National Archives: http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/bill_of_rights.html
See the ACLU’s history of the Bill of Rights: https://www.aclu.org/racial-justice_prisoners-rights_drug-law-reform_immigrants-rights/bill-rights-brief-history