hello, everyone, and welcome to

the national constitution center. my name is madison. i'm a member of the education team and i'm joined today by my wonderful colleague brian, who is live in the museum at the national constitution center in philadelphia to share with us everything he knows about the bill of rights. but we're going to be taking a look. three very important documents, our nation's history, the declaration of independence, the constitution, and, of course, the bill of rights, which is of the constitution. but we're going to be looking at specifically where we see themes to the bill of rights in all three of these documents. so brian's going to kind of take us speed through the exhibit, share fun facts, show us these really cool, rare printings of these documents. and then we're going to play some trivia to see if we can test our knowledge. if we do, in fact know our bill of rights. so without further ado, brian, i'm going to turn it over to you and please take through and show us everything that we have.

all right. well, thank you, madison, for having me here. thank you, everybody, for joining us. happy delaware. delaware friends. are we are in the constitution center's exhibit called constituting liberty. the full title duty constituting liberty from the declaration of independence to the bill of rights. and we're really looking at that. the themes unite these founding. and i'm standing in front of, as you can probably tell by the case here, what it says the declaration of independence. now, this is not you may think the original that would have been signed by benjamin franklin and jefferson and john adams and all of those gentlemen back in 1776. you can find that at the national archives in washington. but this declaration of independence is still a really interesting one to see if i can hand over here. this is the we call the stone engraving and we call it that not because it's honestly stone, but because a fellow named william j. stone back in eight, in the

early 1820s, was commissioned by the federal government to produce a copy of the declaration of independence. the document. a lot of the things that are on paper in ink and parchment, they can kind of fade over time. they can be difficult to read. and during the administration, they want it to be mindful to preserve the declaration not just its message, but even how it appeared for us for future generations. so that actually a really interesting, complicated process. i love to get into that for you folks. so when we get a little more time to dive into the history of some of these documents, but this a great look because we can see a little bit clearer the text of declaration of independence and how it embodies a lot of these key principles of the american revolution. and if we know what a declaration of independence, what does happen there? if we know our declaration of independence, we can see there's

this unanimous declaration of independence when in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds. and i know the can be a little tricky for folks read, but the declaration of independence begins with a pronouncement for why we are doing this, why we are creating this nation united states of america. and it says that we have all men are created equal that we inalienable rights race that no government can take away. so it's already a statement we see within our world. so the idea that there are freedoms that no government digest their past their future generations like, us. and it actually goes into it. if we were to read a lot of the rest of the text of this declaration of independence, you would see that it gets into the rights that the king george the third and parliament have denied to the people of united states. and so it's really driving home that there are freedoms that the government shouldn't not have

the ability to take away, to restrict. and so the declaration of independence, the creation of our country really, begins with that big statement, that there are rights, that people are guaranteed and are secured that cannot be ruled them, that cannot be denied to. but over the next 11 years, the country attempts to to govern itself. the declaration of independence creates us as a country of course founded on these principles of, you know, equal justice under that, the law ought to apply fairly equally to everyone that there are natural rights, these rights, these freedoms that no one can take away, that they cannot deny your freedom of conscience, your rights to your beliefs, and more. and this really is a popular sovereignty of power is derived from the people. but the declaration spells out why are creating this nation and says we're creating the united

states of america. but the constitution is what i feel really says what kind of country the united states of america going to be. and the document in this case here, this is a really interesting version of the constitution, and it's a great one for our friends as had our conversation about ratifying the constitution. this is the pennsylvania packet. it was published here in philadelphia on pence on september seventh, 19, 1787. we can see that there. pennsylvania packet and daily. it's a newspaper published by a couple of guys, john dunlap and david claypoole. john dunlap, a printer here in philadelphia. he actually is known for the first printed copies of the declaration independence as well. so he's around there putting out a lot of these documents for we the people read. and this newspaper they published on wednesday 19th, they published whole wording of the constitution. so you can see this.

we, the people of the united states, in order to form a more perfect union. this is the original unamended constitution. their entire paper that day is the text of the constitution. and beyond that, it's going to get into things, including the names, the many signers, the constitution. we see, the names and signatures here a statement from. the convention below that george washington's name first. many of these other well-known figures like benjamin franklin, alexander, hamilton the numbers are stating which states had delegates present. you may notice everybody except for rhode island. and then a statement to the congress basically explaining what they were doing, putting together. so is really summarize. but this original constitution this so these seven articles were mentioned in first three establishing our legislative our executive branch our judicial branch. it will get into the rights. the abilities by the states.

the relationship that the states have with each other. and supremacy of this constitution. it tells us how to amend the constitution and then how this will even be ratified, how it will take effect. the process that begins with our friends from delaware this day. what would have been a little bit under three months after the constitution was signed. but over the course of that, we saw those names here that were on this constitution. this is not every single person attended the convention. there were 55 men from 12 states. every except for rhode island. and they gathered throughout the summer, debating what form of government the united states should have. what changes should make. in the end, only 39 out of the 55 delegates actually signed the constitution. by the time the signing, even place. only 42 people are left and three of them are dissenters. george mason. elbridge gerry edmund randolph. they were from virginia

massachusetts and virginia, by the way, the order that i mentioned them, they to side. and one of the big concerns is a lack of a bill of rights. george mason had written virginia declaration of rights. he'd written the freedoms that the people of his state possessed, that the government take away. and there was not a bill of rights in this case that did not spell one out. some of their fellow delegates, like alexander hamilton, thought that a bill of rights could be unnecessary. maybe even dangerous. hamilton says that, you know, this constitution is we the people, giving powers to, the government, not the other way around. that the government cannot take these rights away because we have not given it the ability to do that. he suggests it could be dangerous to suggest there are limits on this, on a bill of writing, a bill of rights suggests other freedoms might be as important, may not be protected, but people are not swayed. a lot of folks agree with george mason and edmund randolph, an 11

year. they feel that a bill of rights is needed and. they think that, okay, we need add it. and eventually, james himself is convinced. and right now we have our reproduction in our case here we have this historic bill of rights. if we were to take a look at this document, i'm aware, my friends, that is very difficult to read this one here. so i won't even try to get too close or document here our bill of rights. we might know that it starts as a long, complicated process. maybe some of you have had to write a draft before. and james madison really sets us on that path. a he proposes 90 amendments to his fellow of congress in june of 1789. he introduces eventually through the house as it's a process of debate among all of these members, our legislative branch. it is knocked down to 17 amendments. we can actually see an example of this at work in this case beside me here.

this is actually edits to bill of rights. there are in 1718 amendments on this. here you can see some of these ones. this is the very end article of the 11. there are not 11 amendments we think of in the bill rights. 13 and more. so we have these early drafts of the amendments. this is actually a bunch of xs crosses that we can see marks. this is members of the senate making their suggestions. we're going to knock this one out. this example here, these number of third and the fourth, they get combined in the first amendment. this is talking about freedom of religion. this one has speech, assembly and petition altogether. we know today. these are all in one amendment. but they were separate amendments at that. eventually as they make their way to the states and i'm going to move over just to get a good look at this, not all of these proposed amendments get approved. the house and the senate on 12 amendments. and they send those 12 out to

the states. this is thomas jefferson's handwriting. looks like an excel spreadsheet. and he's tracking which states? affirmative, negative have voted yes or no for all of these amendments. and this is showing that, hey, we've got the majority we need. we've got three quarters of states have agreed. and so this is december 15th, 1791. the bill of rights is officially added. these ten amendments were ratified. thomas jefferson's martin. they're all right. i received responses from these states. we have ten amendments to the constitution of the united states. so we can see through a few of our documents there some of that exploration. madison, what do you think? we want to see if we want to have some about our bill of rights. sure, brian. i think it's a it's a great time. jump in and play some trivia to see if our friends have been paying attention so that they can really test their test their bill of rights knowledge. so going to go ahead and pull up my screen friends and we're

going to see. who wants to be a billionaire. i love that. you'll love that. i love that name. all right, friends. so we have several questions. brian has made the has made these questions. so we're going to see if you can kind of work your way through these answer. so here we go. get your bill of rights trivia. get all that knowledge ready. and we're going to begin now. first question, friends, what is the bill of rights? you got three options here. it's the first set of amendments to the constitution. is it a document declaring the 13 colonies were no longer part of british empire? is it a. publishing published by thomas paine? what is it. i see all the answers in first. i love it. we gave you an easy one to start, friends. i love it. kosmas cunningham class. we got it coming.

and you are correct. it is the first out of amendments to constitution very. very good friends. all right. moving right along next question. how many make up the bill of rights? oh, i threw out a few numbers, you folks. which ones are you really did? this one may be trickier. is it ten amendments? is it 12 amendments? is it 19 amendments. tell us, friends, what do you think? we have a couple friends saying 12, a couple friends saying and the correct answer, ten amendments. remember brian mentioned that we had a number amendments that were initially proposed by he was really ambitious. right but eventually we dwindled it down to that ten. good job, folks. oh, finally, everybody. what is an amendment? is it a decision by the supreme court? is it a congress passes

unanimously? is that a change made to the constitution? what do you think of these three options? what do we think? number three, a change seems pretty unanimous far. your responses. i love it. they know their stuff. it is a change made to the constitution russian excellent friends. all right. moving right along. which founder first argued in federalist number four that a bill of rights was unnecessary. he said. man six said that a bill of rights unnecessary, maybe dangerous. bold words we think about what really. oh, okay. it looks like we have a of folks saying hamilton you are correct. alexander hamilton coming in

criticizing the bill of rights. was like, oh, you don't need this. oh, well, aren't we happy that those opinions did not hold up? we love our bill of rights moving along, which famous founder introduced a series of amendments to the constitution in june of 1789? is it ben franklin? james madison or alexander hamilton? well, that's all right. oh, very, very good. excellent. it looks like we're pretty unanimous on this. everybody you are correct. if you said james madison. well done. all right. next question. how many were in james first draft of the bill of rights? it's a tricky one. is it 12? is it 17? is it 19. what do we think we are some folks saying 19. some saying 12 of.

not lot more. 17. hmm. shall reveal who we shall reveal. it is a list of 19 nine. wonderful. now, madison, i would just say, have a wonderful feature on our website, too that writing rights or constitutional rights origins in travel is interactive where you can see all of those versions of the bill of rights that james madison was his original draft. we can take a look. absolutely. friends. and we'll make to pop out in the chat, too, at the end. all right, everybody, how many freedoms are mentioned in the first amendment? four or five or six. your freedom of what? freedom to what? how many? how many freedoms are? how many feel free to write them out? if that's at all helpful. oh, we look a little split here. some say five. some. say six. it is. in fact, by five. we have five freedoms.

and the first amendment. all right everyone. next question. which of these is not mentioned in the first amendment? the free exercise of religion. the right of the people to assemble or the right to a trial by jury. which of these three is not included in the first amendment? anybody know? oh elizabeth coming in first. it looks a lot of you have agreed that is fact. jury trial. absolutely. we do not see that in the first amendment. that will be mentioned in your second sentence. very good. now, fill in the this is one of my favorites. the right. of the people to be secure in their persons houses and effects against blank searches and seizures. seizures shall be violated. is unreasonable searches and

seizures. is it warrantless searches and seizures? is it inconvenient to searches and seizures? what do you think think? we have a couple of folks split between unreasonable and warrantless and inconvenient as well although. i do i do love all three of those. thosare all great. and we have a big reveal. unreasonable searches and seizures. very good. that one may be a little bit trickier. all right friends, which amendment describes? the rights of the accused in criminal trials. is it more varied? amendment, the sixth amendment or the seventh amendment? what we think. i love. you're all very okay. we have some people who are very certain that it is the sixth amendment or.

all right, let's see what's big reveal. you are correct. well done. right. it's a bunch of constitutional scholars today. this is awesome. all right, friends and i think we're nearing the end. which amendment prohibits cruel and punishments as well as excessive bail and fines. what amendment prevents? prohibits it, rather, for the amendment sixth amendment or eighth amendment. let us know we have something six. we have something. or we have a number of you saying correctly. the eighth amendment. that is correct. and maybe maybe you've heard people say that's a violation of my eighth amendment. they're addressing cruel and unusual punishment. all right. i think this may be our question, everybody. which amendment was introduced with the bill of rights initially, but more than a

century later? this is a fun one. and it has a really cool story that i hope brian will tell us about which amendment was introduced with the bill of rights, but ratified more than a century later. know what? we're kind of split on this, brian? that part of division. well, friends and you said 27. you are correct. brian can share with us. first of all, everybody give yourselves a round of applause. that was the end of our bill of rights trivia. you all did a fantastic job. but brian, can you explain the story, the 27th amendment because it's one of my favorites and it's so. so. of course. and the 27th amendment on that document was showing you folks in back and i take a look at over here. it's tenuous around and it's got a little zoom in on it. no law varying the compensation for members of the house and senate shall effect until an

election has intervened. there you go right in the middle there. so this one that basically says if congress if the house or the senate were able to give themselves a pay raise today, which is a nice ability to have, by the way, it wouldn't effect until after the 2024 general action if november. so they're not technically giving it to themselves. that would have been the original second amendment on the bill of rights as written on this document, but it does not get ratified. it actually is the one that if we looked at that thomas jefferson document over here that i shared, i'm going to go back it. you might have noticed that there one that had a bunch of no votes on it over here that you see that affirmative and in thomas jefferson's handwriting. this one, it had a bunch of no votes. new hampshire, rhode island, new york, new jersey and pennsylvania all voted no on that one. that they voted yes on all the other amendments bill of rights. it takes a while.

it's actually not until there are a few states that over time ratify it. it's actually one state. sure. or a few states sure. it remains for a while. but in the 1980s in gregory is it gregory wants it right. madison has a project in assignment the university of texas in other students are having write about an amendment a change to the constitution. they would like to see that actually could be possible could get broad support because it's hard to amend the constitution. and he wrote about this amendment. james madison had proposed years earlier over the course of despite his grade on the paper, not actually being great. i think you got to see he and others agree this a good idea. the amendment had been submitted to the states already. so you needed state governments to keep voting on it, which is how it could take 203 years. in 1980s, the early 1990s, a few more states to vote to ratify this amendment actually gets added as the 27th amendment to

the constitution after 203 years of there was one other question i think we had madison. if you didn't mind my asking. someone said, what were the other amendments that got dropped? there's one that's basically a math formula for the size of the house of representatives. that's the other of the only one of those 12 sent out to the states. it's never ratified. the other answer of how you get to night from 19 even to 12. a lot of them are combined. i'm not going to go back to our document here, but i'm showing you already that the bill of rights, the first amendment, was basically three separate amendments. james madison's first draft gets cut down two in that 17 amendment version, the seventh amendment that talks about civil trials like lawsuits. that's two separate amendments in this version. same with the sixth amendment that madison asked that question about. so honestly, it's not a of the rights that mentioned say the six protects the rights of

people in criminal defendants. there would have been more than one amendment talking about that the kind of combined bill. it's a pretty long amendment if you take a look at it. so there's our answer, that one as well. but what do you think? any other questions? anything in the chat notes or anything? we wanted to with our our friends that awesome. brian, i meant to add a spot like, there you go. that was awesome. brian thank you for sharing that with us. i did just want to remind friends though, next week, we are going to be taking a tour of that exhibit that's behind brian now. and we're going to start by meeting the dissenters. so we're going to meet those men that brian talked about, we're going to meet george mason, edmund randolph, elbridge, gerry, these men who really kind of folded their arms, turned up their noses at the constitution and really insisted on that bill of. so join us next week. it's going to be a really fun virtual tour and we're so excited that you you joined in and that you were able to hang out with us today.

of course, next week is bill of rights week or bill of rights day falls next week. so you're going to see brian and i again and we're going to have a lot of fun. but again, a huge thank you for all of you tuning in. brian, thank you for sharing your time and expertise. this has been so much fun and everybody give yourselves around applause. you are all bill of rights rock stars so well you good job. thank you so much. thank you for hosting trivia game, madison. i feel like i did pretty i love it. it a good game. all right. we'll see you all time by

good morning. my name is kevin