Delegates to the Constitutional Convention disagreed over the need to list specific rights within the U.S. Constitution, but anti-Federalists insisted individual liberties—including the freedoms of speech, religion, and assembly—required protection from the new national government. Federalists promised these protections to entice opposing states to ratify the U.S. Constitution. Fulfilling that promise, members of the First Congress (1789–1791) proposed 12 amendments to the original U.S. Constitution. The states quickly ratified ten, known collectively as the Bill of Rights.
A number of the States, having at the time of their adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added.
Preamble, Bill of Rights, 1789