Scott informed me today that it is the 213th anniversary of the ratification of the Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the Constitution.

The Bill of Rights was written largely by James Madison as a way to protect the people from the government. Originally, twelve amendments were submitted to Congress, but only ten were ratified. One of them eventually became ratified by enough states -- about 200 years later. It became the 27th amendment, which says that pay raises for Congress shall take effect in the Congressional term after the pay raise is ratified. The other amendment limited the amount of people a representative could represent to 30,000.

Madison drew from external sources to develop a list of the rights of United States citizens. One of them was the English Bill of Rights (1689), which contains almost the same wording about cruel and unusual punishment and excessive bail as the Eighth Amendment. Another source for the Bill of Rights was the Virgina Statute for Religious Freedom, passed in 1786. It affirmed that, even though God had the power to make all men believe in the same religion, He did not do so, and thus men should respect that decision. It also recognizes that

the impious presumption of legislators and rulers, civil as well as ecclesiastical, who being themselves but fallible and uninspired men, have assumed dominion over the faith of others, setting up their own opinions and modes of thinking as the only true and infallible, and as such endeavouring to impose them on others, hath established and maintained false religions over the greatest part of the world, and through all time.

As such, the Virginia General Assembly affirmed that

no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinion in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish enlarge, or affect their civil capacities.

Please read more about the history of the Bill of Rights.