How did Thomas Jefferson influence James Madison's views about the importance of a bill of rights?
Narrator says the first two of the 12 amendments were never ratified, but the second (congressional pay) was ratified in 1992 as the 27th Amendment. A clarification was added in an after-question explanation.
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The video explains how Thomas Jefferson, writing from France, persuaded his friend James Madison that a bill of rights mattered. Madison first called written rights a 'paper barrier', but Jefferson argued that an extra prop can keep a building standing and that written rights teach people to value them; pressure from Virginia's religious minorities also moved Madison to champion the Bill of Rights in the First Congress.
You'll be able to
- explain Madison's 'paper barrier' objection to a bill of rights.
- describe Jefferson's arguments for a bill of rights.
- explain why Virginia's religious minorities wanted a bill of rights.
Key words
- paper barrier
- A rule that exists only on paper and can easily be ignored.
- popular sentiment
- What ordinary people feel and believe.
- free exercise of religion
- The right to practice your religion without government interference.
- Anglican establishment
- The official, government-supported Church of England in Virginia.
Transcript
Video Title: How did Thomas Jefferson influence James Madison's views about the importance of a bill of rights? Video URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9tnjbX8Fxo Transcript generated by YouTube Transcript Generator - Extract transcripts from any YouTube video instantly at https://transcriptgenerator.org ======================================== Now, Thomas Jefferson, his main contribution. He's in France, our minister to France. He's writing to his best friend, James Madison, throughout this whole period, and Madison is keeping him abreast of what's going on. After the Constitution is finished, like George Mason, Jefferson says, "We don't have a bill of rights." You've done a good job. I mostly like this thing,
but there's no bill of rights. Madison's first response is, Look, Virginia has a Bill of Rights. We have a declaration of rights. Every time the legislature has wanted to violate it, it has done it. It's a paper barrier. In other words, just a piece of paper. But Jefferson, he keeps adding, and he uses an architectural metaphor, which is interesting because Jefferson is a great amateur architect. But he says, a building may stand because of an extra prop. You may not think you need that extra prop, but that may be the difference between the building standing or falling. Then he also says, if you have a Bill of Rights and the rights are written down, then the people will be familiar with them.
They'll be impressed with them, and they will come to value the rights, and that will be the most important thing because popular sentiment is ultimately what makes a government stand or fall. Madison admires Jefferson more than any other man in his life. This impresses him. He's also impressed by the politics of his home state, especially the religious minorities in Virginia, who he's always been very close to and supportive of the people excluded from the old Anglican establishment, Baptists, especially, also Methodists. They're alarmed that there's no bill of rights. They want their free exercise of religion guaranteed. Madison promises them if he gets elected to Congress, he will make it his first order of business to see that a
Bill of Rights is added, which is what he does. He insists in the First Congress that we have to pay attention to this. They take the time to address that. They in the Senate together come up with 12 amendments. The first two are never ratified, 3 through 12, so they become 1 through 10, and by 1791, they are added to the Constitution.
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