The Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, Volume 40: Bill of Rights, No. 4, 1 January-31 August 1789

A new volume in the venerable constitutional history series

The fourth in a planned five-volume series examining the intense debate over the drafting and ratification of the first Ten Amendments to the Constitution, The Bill of Rights, No. 4, 1 January–31 August 1789 is the latest work in the landmark Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution series. The Bill of Rights series represents a profoundly important documentary record of the effort to protect human rights during the Revolutionary War Era. The volume includes state bills of rights and excerpts from state constitutions that protected rights, actions taken under the Articles of Confederation to protect rights, and the debate over rights in the Constitu­tional Convention of 1787, among a wealth of other docu­mentation. The series will greatly aid those interested in learning how Americans of the Founding generation established a strong federal system of government while at the same time safeguarding the rights of the people.

Begun in 1976, The Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution series is a reference collection that aims to preserve the state-by-state debates about the ratification of the United States Constitution.

The Ratification series is directed by constitutional scholar JOHN P. KAMINSKI, director of the Center for the Study of the American Constitution at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Bill of Rights series co-editors include KAMINSKI, THOMAS H. LINLEY, ELIZABETH M. SCHOENLEBER, TIMOTHY D. MOORE, DUSTIN M. COHAN, OINDRILA CHATTOPADHYAY, ANNA M. BIERMEIER, CHRISTOPHER S. BERRY, SARAH K. DANFORTH, and DANIEL J. HOEFS.