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To: jwalsh07
Had the federalists had their way, there would be no BOR.

Actually, James Madison was a federalist, and he wrote the Bill of Rights. Alexander Hamilton though, did not feel the need for a Bill of Rights because the Constitution is a restraint on government, not the rights of the people. He apparently could not fathom a scenario where government would even be in a position to question individual rights, or infer that the people aren't entitled to them. So, in that respect, to say that the Federalists didn't want a Bill of Rights is disingenuous -- it wasn't that they didn't believe in individual rights. They simply did not recognize the need to specify them in the Constitution.

I also believe that rights do not come from the state. I believe individual rights are inherent among all of us, regardless of how we perceive their spiritual or nonspiritual origins.

By the way, Thomas Jefferson was also an anti-federalist, among many other things. But you will get strong disagreements, even from evangelicals, that he was far from a Christian. We need to be careful not to lump all industrialist's into one specific set of religious beliefs.

544 posted on 12/02/2004 2:32:44 PM PST by Beemnseven
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To: Beemnseven
The Bill of Rights was the creation of George Mason, not Madison. Mason and his fellow anti federalists insisted on a BOR and most of the BOR was originated from Masons Virginia Declaration of Rights. Oddly enough, that is why George Mason is known in history as the "Father of the Bill of Rights".

Oh, and one other thing, George Mason was a devout Christian.

548 posted on 12/02/2004 2:47:38 PM PST by jwalsh07
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