The Bill of Rights Purpose

The Bill of Rights purpose was to provide Americans with basic, "unalienable" civil rights. While some opponents of the Bill of Rights asserted that stating these rights was unnecessary, proponents of the Bill of Rights felt that it addressed rights that were not mentioned in the Constitution.

Though the Amendments were proposed in 1789, they were not ratified until 1791. James Madison authored the Bill of Rights, with the express purpose of limiting the government's control on individuals. In this vein, the Bill of Rights purpose was to silence the outcry of the Anti-Federalists, who had demanded a bill of rights since the ratification of the Constitution. Anti-Federalists favored states' rights over a strong centralized government. Some of these noteworthy Anti-Federalists were Patrick Henry and Samuel Adams.

Of the ten Amendments described in the Bill of Rights, the most prominent civil rights outlined were the right to free speech, freedom of the press, the right to bear arms, the right to a trial by a court of your peers, and due process. The Bill of Rights purpose also was to protect citizens from cruel and unusual punishment, self incrimination, and unreasonable search and seizure. Perhaps the most ambiguously worded Amendment, the ninth Amendment secured liberties for people not detailed in the Bill of Rights. This satisfied the protest of the chief opponent of the Bill of Rights, Alexander Hamilton. He worried that the Bill of Rights would limit people's rights to those in the Constitution.

Though the Bill of Rights was hugely influential on American politics at its inception, the U.S. government was unable to apply the freedoms and protection given by the document to state laws until the Fourteenth Amendment was passed after the Civil War.