On this day, December 15, 1791, the Bill of Rights was enacted.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

I haven't gone to work in downtown DC since March, so I won't be going down to the National Archives at lunch to look at a copy up close and personal.

Fri Dec 13, 2019: Happy 228th birthday, the Bill of Rights, enacted on December 15, 1791.

Friday, December 14, 2018: Happy 227th birthday, the Bill of Rights, enacted on December 15, 1791

Friday, December 15, 2017: Happy 226th birthday, the Bill of Rights



On this day in 1791, the Bill of Rights became law when it was ratified by the Virginia General Assembly.

Perennial local writer of letters to the editor Ellen Latane (it's pronounced "laa'-tuh-nee," not "luh-tain'" ) Tabb makes note most years of the legacy of George Mason. Here's 2013's letter.

Give George Mason his rightful place in American history

26 December 2013
By Ellen Latane Tabb, Alexandria

To the editor:

December 15 marked the anniversary of the adoption of the Bill of Rights in 1791.

George Mason IV, of Gunston Hall, (George Washington’s next-door neighbor on the Potomac; both considered themselves Alexandrians) is the person most responsible for its inclusion. He refused to sign the U.S. Constitution without a statement of our rights — and he also wanted it to provide for emancipation.

When the Virginia General Assembly debated its adoption, he was among the foremost opposing it for those reasons. Virginia narrowly voted to ratify the Constitution with the proviso that a Bill of Rights must accompany it.

This also is an appropriate time to remember Mason because his birthday was December 11. It should be widely observed; he was one of the most important Founding Fathers.

Mason authored the Virginia Declaration of Rights and the Fairfax Resolves (ratified in Alexandria), which set the precedent of one colony supporting another in resistance to British tyranny. He was a major contributor to the discussions resulting in the creation of our federal republic.
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And then she heads off into a diatribe, but never mind that. The big deal is that there's a reason that George Mason has an elementary school, a high school, and a university named after him.

So make sure as you spend the day, that you "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

I could say more, but it would only upset people.

Celebrate the achievement, and the birth, on December 11, 1725, of this founding father.

Happy 292nd Birthday, George Mason. Founding Founder, He Conceived the Bill of Rights.

Fri Dec 14, 2018: SC Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg delivered remarks at the National Archives on Bill of Rights Day

DECEMBER 14, 2018

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Bill of Rights Day

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg delivered remarks at the National Archives Naturalization Ceremony marking Bill of Rights Day. Officials plan to swear in more than 30 candidates from 26 countries as new U.S. citizens.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

1. On this day, December 15, 1952, Truman unveiled some old documents at their new home.

I've had some earlier threads about this. The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were at the Library of Congress for several years after the war. I learned this from the Judy Holliday movie, "Born Yesterday." I don't know about the whereabouts of the Bill of Rights.

President Harry Truman today 1952 unveiled the Declaration of Independence, Constitution and Bill of Rights (ratified today 1791), on permanent display at
@USNatArchives
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Link to tweet

[mahatmakanejeeves]

2. The Empty Shrine: The Transfer of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution to ...

The Empty Shrine: The Transfer of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution to the National Archives

MILTON O. GUSTAFSON

IN 1952 THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS transferred the original engrossed copies of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution to the National Archives. Together with the Bill of Rights, they are the Charters of Freedom, the most precious documents in the National Archives of the United States. The story of why the shrine in the Exhibition Hall of the Archives Building, especially designed for the exhibit of these documents, was empty for almost twenty years, and how the Library of Congress finally transferred custody of the two great documents to the National Archives, has never before been told.

The ceremony when they left the library on Saturday, December 13, 1952, was a spectacular event. Brigadier General Stoyte O. Ross, commanding general of the Air Force Headquarters Command, formally received the documents at the Library of Congress at 11 A.M. Twelve members of the Armed Forces Special Police carried the six parchment documents, encased in helium-filled glass cases and enclosed in wooden crates, through a cordon of eighty-eight servicewomen down the library steps. The boxes were placed on mattresses in an armored Marine Corps personnel carrier. A color guard, ceremonial troops, the Army Band, the Air Force Drum and Bugle Corps, two light tanks, four servicemen carrying submachine guns, and a motorcycle escort paraded down Pennsylvania and Constitution Avenues to the Archives Building. Both sides of the street along the parade route were lined by Army, Navy, Coast Guard, Marine, and Air Force personnel. General Ross and the twelve Special Policemen arrived at the National Archives Building at 11:35 A.M., carried the crates up the steps, and formally delivered them into the custody of Wayne Grover, the archivist of the United States.

Two days later, at 10:15 A.M. on Monday, December 15, 1952, the formal enshrining ceremony was equally impressive. Officials of more than 100 national civic, patriotic, religious, veterans, educational, business, and labor groups crowded into the Exhibition Hall. Fred M. Vinson, chief justice of the United States, presided. After the invocation by the Reverend Frederick Brown Harris, chaplain of the Senate, Governor Elbert N. Carvel of Delaware, the first state to ratify the Constitution, called the roll of states in the order in which they ratified the Constitution or were admitted to the Union. As each state was called, a servicewoman carrying the state flag entered the Exhibition Hall and remained at attention in front of the display cases circling the hall. President Harry S. Truman, the featured speaker, said

{snip}

The author is chief, Diplomatic Branch of the Civil Archives Division, National Archives and Records Service.