United States Bill of Rights
The United States Bill of Rights comprises the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution. Proposed following the often bitter 1787–88 debate over the ratification of the Constitution and written to address the objections raised by Anti-Federalists, the Bill of Rights amendments add to the Constitution specific guarantees of personal freedoms and rights, clear limitations on the government's power in judicial and other proceedings, and explicit declarations that all powers not specifically granted to the federal government by the Constitution are reserved to the states or the people. The concepts codified in these amendments are built upon those in earlier documents, especially the Virginia Declaration of Rights (1776), as well as the Northwest Ordinance (1787), the English Bill of Rights (1689), and Magna Carta (1215).
First page of an original copy of the twelve proposed articles of amendment, as passed by Congress
On June 5, 1788, Patrick Henry spoke before Virginia's ratification convention in opposition to the Constitution.
James Madison, primary author and chief advocate for the Bill of Rights in the First Congress
The National Archives' Rotunda for the Charters of Freedom in Washington, D.C. where, in-between two Barry Faulkner murals, the original Bill of Rights, Constitution, Declaration of Independence, and other American founding documents are publicly exhibited.
Constitution of the United States
The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, on March 4, 1789. Originally including seven articles, the Constitution delineates the national frame and constrains the powers of the federal government. The Constitution's first three articles embody the doctrine of the separation of powers, in which the federal government is divided into three branches: the legislative, consisting of the bicameral Congress ; the executive, consisting of the president and subordinate officers ; and the judicial, consisting of the Supreme Court and other federal courts. Article IV, Article V, and Article VI embody concepts of federalism, describing the rights and responsibilities of state governments, the states in relationship to the federal government, and the shared process of constitutional amendment. Article VII establishes the procedure subsequently used by the 13 states to ratify it. The Constitution of the United States is the oldest and longest-standing written and codified national constitution in force in the world.
Page one of Jacob Shallus' officially engrossed copy of the Constitution signed in Philadelphia by delegates of the Constitutional Convention in 1787
Scene at the Signing of the Constitution of the United States on September 17, 1787, a 1940 portrait by Howard Chandler Christy depicting the signing of the Constitution in Philadelphia
"We the People" in its original edition
The signatures in the closing endorsement section of the United States Constitution