Question

Upon first proposal at the Constitutional Convention the Bill of Rights were unanimously defeated. Some believed that the federal government did not have the power to infringe upon their basic liberties in the first place, and they had concerns over the possibility of forgetting to include something important. If they did create a list it could possibly restrain them from claiming any rights not included. Others pointed out that state constitutions already provided these protections, and argued that they were redundant and unnecessary. In your opinion was the Bill of Rights a necessary addition to the Constitution? Can you identify any rights that are not included that you believe should have been? Defend your answer.

Answer 1

The bill of rights was the definitely unnecessary addition to the constitution as the original constitution had very limited protection provided for individual rights without any specification of the exact rights for the individuals. the reason for the submission was probably due to the limited powers that the constitution according to the central government leading to the assumption that the government would not have the required authority for violation of any individual rights. It could also b to ensure that the constitution as defined would not face much opposition due to disagreement upon lengthy enumerated rights which would be difficult to obtain consensus upon from all states. The list could also be incomplete and lead to different interpretation of the language buy understanding that any rights which unintentionally omitted as being denied.

During ratification of the constitution various state governments voiced their concern over the absence of individual rights leading to the formulation of twelve amendments to the constitution out of which ten were ratified by the state governments and came to be regarded as the bill of rights. As the state governments within the constitution provided adequate protection to rights of individuals the bill of rights was impossible against the Federal government only. However after the American civil war due to passage of free amendments mainly aimed at protecting the rights of the newly freed slaves to protect them against discrimination and discourage slavery in any form the entire bill of rights was made applicable at both state and Federal level. The bill of rights was an important amendment to the constitution to clearly define the rights of individuals and protect them from injustice in any form and to ensure that absolute freedom as intended by the constitution was made available to every individual without discrimination of any kind.

In my opinion, the bill of rights was too focused upon providing protection to the public from the goverment rather than upon the rights which were essential to guarantee freedom which afforded absolute rights and respect as citizens and individuals. Had it considered exhaustively rights of every citizen given the fact that the United States consisted of citizens from various races and nationalities, the all important 13th 14th and 15th amendment would not have being considered post the American civil war and could have prevented the american Civil war from breaking out due to unspeakable injustice being done to citizens on the basis of race and colour. True freedom justice and respect for all without discrimination should have been the primary element of the bill of rights. In spite of the injustice meted out to the natives of the land the bill did not provide any form of protection to these natives to ensure that they were not further exploited. The bill of rights is focused upon ensuring that government departments do not subject individuals to harrassment and provide fair trial to criminals. The rights of the innocent and the exploited have been ignored and no provision made to put an end to exploitation and discrimination by clearly stating rights which would prevent such acts. This could be due to the difficulty to attain consensus, as many states were strongly for providing special rights and maintaining the supremacy of the whites.

Had the bill of rights carefully considered right to freedom and justice of every individual it could have changed the history of America along with its present status, with an exemplary nation being created without a history of bloodshed and exploitation of the weak.