The Complete Bill of Rights: The Drafts, Debates, Sources, and Origins

The fundamental, inalienable rights and privileges set forth in the Bill of Rights represent the very foundations of American liberty. The Complete Bill of Rights is a documentary record of the process by which these rights and privileges were defined and recorded as law.

Neil H. Cogan incorporates all pertinent materials from the debate on the ratification of the Bill of Rights. Arranged in chronological order, the work presents each clause in its finished form, and traces its development from its origins. Cogan presents every draft of the text and every documentary source, including state convention proposals, state, colonial, and English constitutional texts, sources in caselaw and treatises. He includes data from diaries and correspondence, pamphlets and newspapers, as well as the Congressional debates. He publishes, for the first time, each version of the drafts from the manuscript collections of the National Archives and Library of Congress. The result is the most detailed and useful record of the debate over the Bill of Rights available.

Including the correspondence of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and John Adams among many others who debated the issues that the Supreme Court considers law today, The Complete Bill of Rights is the first and only comprehensive collection of texts essential to understanding the Bill of Rights. Organized in an accessible and practical manner, it is an invaluable tool for law students, judges, lawyers, and law clerks, as well as scholars of the law, history, and political science.

Neil H. Cogan is at Quinnipiac College School of Law.