The Bill of Rights Gets Its Start on Wall Street

In the fall of 1789, the First Congress was meeting at Federal Hall on Wall Street, then serving as the temporary capital of the United States. James Madison had spent months pushing his fellow lawmakers to add explicit protections to the new Constitution, over the objections of colleagues who thought the document was fine as written. On September 25, 1789, Congress approved twelve articles of amendment and sent them to the states for ratification. Ten of those twelve survived the state-by-state process and became the Bill of Rights, finalized on December 15, 1791. The whole project started a few blocks from where the Stock Exchange stands today.