The Bill of Rights Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The Bill of Rights - Essay Example With this, these aspects are discussed and backed with evidence to strongly prove the existence of this document, as well as refute its use in some basis. The bill of rights traces its roots to the United States long before they were united with all the current member states, beginning with the state of Virginia. The first step towards the attainment of the bill of rights began with the gain of independence from Great Britain by American states, followed by seeking of an alliance between America and other foreign powers. This was followed by a third step, which involved the formation of a confederation between thirteen states, which set the base for the birth of the United States of America. As a result of this, there was need to give power to the governments formed in order for citizens to pay taxes in a bid to provide superior services to them as compared to the run down situation on the ground at that moment. This way, the states came up with Articles of Confederation with the goa l to improve services to their citizens, and at the same time cut down on the powers of the government (â€Å"History of the bill of rights†). ... These were the federalists called for ratification of Articles of confederation, while the Anti-federalists believed the inclusion of a bill of rights was the way to go in bringing power to the people and avoiding abuse of power by the government. This way, different states that came together ran their own ratification committees, which were passed in different states at different times. However, it later became known that some states were likely to bring about unjust laws thus there was a need for a bill of rights, which was passed by congress as the 14th amendment to the constitution, and was later adopted by the rest of the world (â€Å"History of the bill of rights†). The bill of rights is crucial on multiple levels, where it serves as a guideline for how citizens should behave towards one another and how their rights can and should be governed as well as how they can be denied. Consequently, it is important in that it allows for the citizens to feel free to engage in what ever religious activities they please, but with certain restrictions (Wood and James). The restrictions in this case apply to not infringing on other people’s rights in anyway if at all the religious rights are to be upheld for the citizens. This creates a fair ground for all to engage in worship without discrimination from other individuals or even the state and state governments. In addition it shows the presence of democracy in any given country as it shows the divisions of power and its distribution to the citizens as seen in the USA, and this serves as a moral high ground for the USA in pushing other countries to adopt the bill of rights to signify the presence of democracy and proper