ite, and the people of Maryland
imposed additional limitations in 1864. The people of New York did not
in their first constitution of 1777 expressly in terms guarantee
individual rights, but they impliedly did so by making the Declaration
of Independence the preamble, and in their constitution of 1821 they
incorporated an explicit statement of individual rights not to be
infringed. The example of the original states in this respect has been
followed by most of the subsequent states of the Union.

In 1778 a convention chosen to draft a constitution for Massachusetts
submitted a draft to the people, who rejected it by a large majority
mainly because it did not contain a "Bill of Rights." To quote from
Harry A. Cushing, a writer on the History of Commonwealth Government
in Massachusetts, "No demand was more general than that for a Bill of
Rights which should embody the best results of experience." In 1780 a
second convention submitted another draft of a constitution containing
the famous Massachusetts Declaration of Rights, and this the people
adopted by a majority of more than two to one. The only objection
urged against the Declaration of Rights was that it did not go far
enough.

In the convention that drafted the Federal Constitution it was
strongly urged that a Bill of Rights should be incorporated in the
draft, but it was deemed, by the majority at least, unnecessary and
even dangerous to make a specific declaration of individual rights,
inasmuch as the federal government contemplated was in its very nature
limited to such powers as were expressly, or by necessary implication,
conferred by the Constitution, and hence to specify certain things the
government should not do might be construed as permitting it to do
anything not so specified. This argument prevailed and the draft
submitted to the states contained no Bill of Rights. Immediately,
however, a storm of objections was raised against it because of the
omission. Despite the arguments of Hamilton and Madison that a Bill of
Rights was unnecessary, ratification was finally obtained only by a
general assurance and understanding that a sufficient Bill of Rights
should be added immediately upon the organization of the new
government. The necessary amendments, therefore, were submitted at the
first session of the new Congress and were unanimously adopted by the
states. Other limitations have since been imposed, notably those in
the XIVth amendment, assuring to every