Notes on Quotes: Almost Losing Our Bill of Rights, Gordon and Marcia Mercer
As the Philadelphia Constitutional Convention recessed in 1787, the delegates were reasonably confident that their work on a strong national constitutional form of government with separation of powers and checks and balances would be easily ratified. As delegates began to arrive home, however, they were hit with a "firestorm". They had not put in a Bill of Rights with freedom of assembly, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, trial rights, the right to bear arms and the many rights we value today.