Essential Questions:

• Why is the Constitution the foundation of the federal government of the United States?

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• What are the ten amendments that make up the Bill of Rights?

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• What are the fundamental liberties protected by the Bill of Rights?​

Vocabulary

• Bill of Rights - the first ten amendments of the United States Constitution

• Framers - the delegates who wrote the Constitution

• Ratified -  approve

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• United States Constitution - a document that is the foundation for the freedoms and responsibilities of U.S. citizens​

Commemorates the creation

and signing of the U.S.

Constitution by thirty-nine men

on September 17, 1787.

Why do we celebrate?

• 55 delegates set the founding principles they believed would work best for the whole country

• James Madison, from Virginia, was the best prepared to craft a constitution

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• His research and knowledge proved the most influential

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• He also wrote the Bill of Rights

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• Madison is often called the “Father of the Constitution”​

James Madison

“We the People of the United States, in Order

to form a more perfect Union, establish

Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide

for the common defence, promote the

general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of

Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do

ordain and establish this Constitution for the

United States of America.”​

Missing in Action

Bill of Rights

• When the Constitution was signed in 1787, it was missing a Bill of Rights

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• Of the 55 original delegates, only 41 were present to sign the proposed

  Constitution

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• Three refused to sign what they considered a flawed document because

  it lacked a Bill of Rights

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• Thomas Jefferson wrote to Madison about what he did not like about

  the recently adopted Constitution​

Finally Added!

• December 15, 1791, the Bill of Rights was ratified by three-fourths of the states​

• Many of the rights in the Bill of Rights are natural human rights all people are born with, and that nobody should have to live without​

• It written to protect individuals from government infringing on those rights​

• First ten amendments to the Constitution gave citizens more confidence in the new government ​

• Contain many of the freedoms Americans value most today​

6. Speedy, public trial by jury

7. civil case to be decided by a jury trial when the
amount of money involved is over $20

8. No unfair bail or cruel/unusual punishment

9. Certain rights shall not be to denied to the people
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10. powers not delegated to the United States by
the Constitution, are reserved to the States
respectively, or to the people​

1.Freedom of speech, religion, press, petition,
assembly

2. Right to bear arms

3. Cannot force citizens to house soldiers

4. Law enforcement need search warrent to
enter home (unless invited in)

5. No self-incrimination, cannot be tried twice
for same crime, eminent domain ​

Bill of Rights - First 10 Amendments