R: The Bill of Rights Is Wrong

After the Philadelphia Convention, some statesmen argued against the Constitution, fearing that the strong national government had the potential to severely threaten individual rights and provide too much power to the President.  The arguments of these statesmen were captured in the Anti-Federalist Papers and led Thomas Jefferson to advocate the possibility of adopting something similar to a bill of rights to James Madison. In 1789 the House of Representatives adopted the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution.  Introduced by James Madison, these amendments acted to curtail governmental power while protecting personal freedoms.  From protection of the freedom of speech and the right to bear arms to limitations on judicial proceedings, the Bill of Rights required governmental concessions.  We join this week to debate these very additions and whether these ten amendments were in the best interest of the nation, or nothing more than concessions made by the Federalists.