James Madison: Speech to the House of Representatives Proposing a Bill of Rights

( 1789 ) Commentary by John R. Vile, Middle Tennessee State University

“I should be unwilling to see a door opened for a re-consideration of the whole structure of the government—for a re-consideration of the principles and the substance of the powers given.” - Speech to the House of Representatives Proposing a Bill of Rights
“I will own that I never considered this provision so essential to the federal constitution, as to make it improper to ratify it, until such an amendment was added; at the same time, I always conceived, that in a certain form and to a certain extent, such a provision was neither improper nor altogether useless.” - Speech to the House of Representatives Proposing a Bill of Rights
“If they [rights] are incorporated into the constitution, independent tribunals of justice will consider themselves in a peculiar manner the guardians of those rights; they will be an impenetrable bulwark against every assumption of power in the legislative or executive.” - Speech to the House of Representatives Proposing a Bill of Rights

James Madison (Library of Congress)

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