This collection of documents on the Bill of Rights provides historical background on the rights that the colonists claimed to hold, and explains why and how those rights became the rights enshrined in the first ten amendments to the Constitution. It focuses on the argument over whether a Bill of Rights was necessary, as this argument revealed much about the founding generation’s view of government and, in particular, the federal arrangement in the Constitution.

This is the third of four volumes that will cover the Founding of the United States. The American Founding, already published, is the capstone of the four. The others — the volume on the Constitutional Convention, also already published; this collection; and a volume on the ratification of the Constitution — tell aspects of the founding story in more detail. Together, the four volumes on the Founding provide the essentials for understanding the Founding as the Founders understood it.