On Sept. 12, 1787, five days prior to the end of what came to be known as the Constitutional Convention, George Mason of Virginia proposed the delegates preface the new Constitution with a Bill of Rights. Mason’s proposal was rejected almost unanimously. The Constitution was signed on September 17, 1787, and was submitted to the states for ratification with no Bill of Rights. Then, Thomas Jefferson, writing to James Madison from Paris, “a bill of rights is what the people are entitled to against every government on earth, general or particular, and what now just government should refuse, or rest on inference.” Ratification of the new Constitution was not guaranteed. For Federalists like James Madison, unacceptable. The ratifying
