150-Year-Old Rights

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of people peaceably to assemble. . . .

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed.

No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house. ...

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated. . . .

No person shall be held to answer for [an] infamous crime, unless on . . . indictment of a Grand Jury . . . nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall [he] be compelled . . . to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial . . . and to be informed of . . . the accusation. . . .

In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved. . . .

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution . . . are reserved to the States . . . or to the people.

One hundred and fifty years ago this week, these defiant, visionary words were read and angrily debated up & down the length of the U.S. They were the ten freedoms for which the U.S. had fought, but they were not yet basic law in the U.S.

They were proposed at the Constitutional Convention in 1787 by a well-to-do planter from Tidewater Virginia, George Mason. Planter Mason had written such a declaration of rights into the Constitution of Virginia. The Convention failed to include the same guarantees in the Constitution of the United States, and Mason refused to sign the Constitution.

Two years later, Representative Madison pushed through a series of amendments to the Constitution embodying his friend George Mason's Bill of Rights.

Ratified by three-fourths of the States, the Bill of Rights became the supreme law of the U.S. on Dec. 15, 1791.

Last week, 1,200 Manhattan clubwomen rallied in honor of the Bill of Rights. To them moody Memsahib Dorothy Thompson raised her armor-piercing alto: "Free speech, free assemblage and a free press did not save the German people from the Nazis. They were the very instruments by which the Nazis came to power."

Abuse of these civil liberties, said Miss Thompson, should be "prohibited by law." In effect, she argued that, to protect the Bill of Rights, a large part of it should be suspended. Under the Bill of Rights she had every right to say so.

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