The Bill of Rights, comprising the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution, was established to protect individual civil liberties from federal government overreach, stemming from debates during the Constitution's ratification.
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Well, hey there and welcome back to
Himler's History and furthermore,
welcome to the first video review for
unit 3 of the AP government curriculum.
This unit is all about civil liberties
and civil rights. And this video in
particular is an introduction to the
Bill of Rights. So, if you're ready to
get them brain cows milked, then let's
get to it. So, in this video, here's
what we're trying to do. Explain how the
US Constitution protects individual
liberties and rights and describe the
rights protected in the Bill of Rights.
Okay, so we've got plenty to do, but let
me remind you before we jump in that if
you need help getting an A in your class
and a five on your exam in May, then you
can grab my AP government review packet.
It's got exclusive videos that are not
here on YouTube and practice questions
and AP style practice exams and
basically everything your little heart
could possibly desire to succeed in your
class and do well on the exam. So, if
that's something you're into, then get
your clicky finger out and follow the
link in the description. Okay, so the
Bill of Rights, what is it and where did
it come from? Well, the Bill of Rights
includes the first 10 amendments to the
Constitution designed to protect civil
liberties. And what are civil liberties?
Civil liberties are constitutionally
established guarantees and freedoms that
protect citizens against arbitrary
government interference. In other words,
the Bill of Rights exists to keep big
daddy government from getting all up in
your business. Now, where did the Bill
of Rights come from? Well, as you no
doubt remember, there was a great fight
over the ratification of the
Constitution, and the waring factions
were known as the Federalists, who were
in favor of a more powerful central
government, and the anti-federalists,
who were in favor of more powerful
states. And since the constitution very
much invested the federal government,
the central government with more power
than it had under the Articles of
Confederation, the anti-federalists got
a little twitchy about the possibility
of that government becoming tyrannical
and squashing their freedoms. So the
anti-federalists said they would not
sign or ratify the Constitution without
a bill of rights that outlined the
specific liberties upon which the
federal government could not tread. Now,
probably the most important of these
anti-federalists for you to know is
George Mason. He was a delegate from
Virginia at the constitutional
convention and was not shy about
frequently opening his mouth hole and
protesting the Constitution's lack of a
bill of rights. Now, James Madison, who
wrote the Constitution, argued along
with his fellow Federalists that no Bill
of Rights was necessary because a free
government by the people had no right to
trample on civil liberties anyway, so
what's the point in spelling all of them
out? Plus, Madison said, "If we start
listing out specific protected rights,
it's very likely that something is going
to be left off that list, and thus
better not to specifically mention
anything." But Mason and the
anti-federalists were like, "Uh,
nuh-uh." And demanded that a bill of
rights be included if there was any hope
of their states ratifying the
Constitution. And so, Madison
compromised and finally agreed to
include a bill of rights as soon as the
requisite number of states ratified the
document. And that day came in September
of 1787 when the delegates at the
constitutional convention signed off on
the document. and then in the next year
when the constitution was finally
ratified. So Madison got to work on the
first 10 amendments to the constitution
and he drew heavily from George Mason's
own work in the Virginia Declaration of
Rights included in the state of
Virginia's constitution which in turn
borrowed from the English Bill of Rights
in the Magna Carta. Now Madison wrote
more than 10 amendments but only 10 of
them were ratified. And since I'm
devoting whole videos to the content of
these amendments here, I'm only going to
give you a taste. And look, I'm not just
listing these out for funsies. You do
have to have a working knowledge of
these amendments. And that's what this
whole unit is about. So let's have a
look. The first amendment protects the
freedom of religion, speech, press,
assembly, and petition. The second
amendment protects the right to keep and
bear arms. The third amendment protects
citizens from having soldiers quartered
in their homes. The fourth amendment
protects against unreasonable searches
and seizures of personal property and
effects. The fifth amendment deals with
the rights of citizens when they are
accused of crimes. In the same vein, the
sixth amendment explains how the process
will go when a person is accused of a
crime and explains the protections to
which they are entitled. The seventh
amendment guarantees the right to trial
by jury. The eth amendment protects
against cruel and unusual punishment and
excessive bail. The ninth amendment
acknowledges that if there are other
rights not mentioned in the first 10
amendments, their exclusion from the
list does not mean that such rights are
not protected. And the 10th amendment
says that any powers not explicitly
granted by the constitution to the
federal government belong exclusively to
the states. Okay, so that's the content
of the bill of rights. And there's one
more very important thing I need to
mention regarding these amendments. The
liberties outlined in the Bill of Rights
protect citizens from intrusion by the
federal government. And that was the
point of including these amendments. The
anti-federalists were afraid of
intrusion by the federal government. And
that's precisely what these 10
amendments protected them from. So that
means in the early days of the republic,
all the liberties listed in the Bill of
Rights protected citizens from the
federal government, not state
governments. Now, later with the passage
of the 14th Amendment, the Bill of
Rights will be applied to the states,
but that's not how it originally was.
All right, click here and grab my
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help getting an A in your class and a
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