“The Congress, whenever two-thirds of both houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this constitution, or on the application of the legislatures of two-thirds of the several states, shall call a convention for proposing amendments, which, in either case, shall be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of this constitution, when ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several states, or by conventions in three-fourths thereof, as the one or the other mode of ratification may be proposed by the Congress … ”
The United States Constitution included a process by which the original document could be amended (quoted above). It was designed to allow some flexibility within the Constitution, while at the same time protecting the Constitution from voluminous (and excessively rapid) changes. At the time that I write this, there have been 27 amendments to the United States Constitution, in accordance with this process. The first ten of them were the ones that make up our Bill of Rights. These ten amendments were ratified simultaneously with each other on December 15th, 1791. But obviously, they are not the only amendments to the Constitution. There have been 17 others at the time that I write this, and this audiobook covers most of them in some detail.
In covering the Bill of Rights, they also cover some of the famous influences on our Bill of Rights. For example, they cover various British documents like the Magna Carta, the Petition of Right, and the 1689 Bill of Rights. They also cover colonial American documents, such as the Massachusetts Body of Liberties, and the Virginia Declaration of Rights – the latter of which was written in 1776 by Founding Father George Mason. They make clear which parts of these documents were influential on the United States Bill of Rights. My first time listening to this audiobook was also my first time hearing of some of these documents. I did not know that there was such a rich tradition behind the American Bill of Rights. Since that time, I have blogged extensively about these amendments, and will link to those blog posts later on, for anyone who is interested. For now, suffice it to say that they were influenced by some of the finest documents ever written prior to that time. Our Constitution would not be the same without their influence.
Magna Carta replica and display, in the rotunda of the United States Capitol (Washington, D.C.)
But there were two other proposed amendments that never made it into the Bill of Rights, and this audiobook covers them briefly. Unbeknownst to the writers of this audiobook, one of them would eventually be ratified within my lifetime. It had to wait 200 years to become part of our Constitution. I refer to the Twenty-Seventh Amendment, which was passed in 1789 and ratified in 1992. The reason they don’t cover its eventual ratification here is very simple: it hadn’t happened yet, when this audiobook was first published in 1987. Again, the amendment was not ratified until 1992. At the time that I write this, it is the only amendment of any kind to be ratified within my lifetime.
United States Bill of Rights
Other amendments covered here include the antislavery amendment, the Fourteenth Amendment, and the various voting rights amendments. These include the one that eventually recognized women’s suffrage in this country. They also cover the Eighteenth Amendment (which enacted Prohibition), and its repeal by the Twenty-First Amendment. (More about that subject here.)
Frederick Douglass, advocate for the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments
Throughout their discussion, they endeavor to put these amendments into the context of their times. These helped me to better understand the meaning and intended purposes of these amendments. There is no substitute for reading the amendments themselves, if one wants to understand our current Constitution (and this audiobook quotes from a number of these amendments). But this audiobook contains historical context which is not always available in the text of the amendments themselves. As always, this is the chief advantage of these audiobooks over a mere reading of the words themselves.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, advocates for women’s suffrage amendment
To cover these amendments in detail would be beyond the scope of this blog post. I have done so elsewhere, and will refer interested readers to my other posts on these subjects (see below). Suffice it to say here that this audiobook is a great introduction to these amendments, and helps you to appreciate the efforts that went into perfecting our Constitution. It gives a particularly good coverage of the American Bill of Rights, which is the most famous part of our Constitution as it stands today.
“This constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof; and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, any thing in the constitution or laws of any state to the contrary notwithstanding.”
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