It was on December 15th, 1791 that the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution were ratified. In other words, today we mark the anniversary of the day, 217 years ago, after more than two years of wrangling, that the Bill of Rights was ratified.
A bill of rights names any document containing a formal statement of rights; when Americans refer to the Bill of Rights, we're referencing the summary of fundamental rights and privileges guaranteed to the people against violation by the state.
Perhaps surprisingly, the phrase Bill of Rights predates its ratification by 17 years. That phrase first appeared in print in 1774, 85 years after the English adopted its own Bill of Rights in 1689. The 1774 coinage was used by the first Continental Congress when it adopted its Declaration and Resolves, a document asserting the rights, liberties, and immunities of the colonists.
A bill of rights names any document containing a formal statement of rights; when Americans refer to the Bill of Rights, we're referencing the summary of fundamental rights and privileges guaranteed to the people against violation by the state.
Perhaps surprisingly, the phrase Bill of Rights predates its ratification by 17 years. That phrase first appeared in print in 1774, 85 years after the English adopted its own Bill of Rights in 1689. The 1774 coinage was used by the first Continental Congress when it adopted its Declaration and Resolves, a document asserting the rights, liberties, and immunities of the colonists.
We know about rights and liberties, but where does immunity fit into this? Although we nowadays think of immunity as referring to the ability to resist a particular disease, or meaning marked by protection, its Latin ancestor immunis meant "exempt"; or "exempt from public service." The sense used by those early Americans named "a freedom or exemption from a charge, duty, obligation, office, tax, imposition, penalty, or service."
1 comment:
bill of rights? you need to convince the mind of the majority first ya
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