I knew that the 27th Amendment was proposed with the original additions, but when you put it the way you did…it seems more amazing. It also make Madison sound more amazing!

The First Amendment–I believe–is the first for a reason.

But, actually its first as a result of a couple of coincidences.

Madison put the twelve proposed amendments in the order in which the parts of the Constitution were found that would be amended. Freedom of conscience (which is what he was working towards) came third.

But the states ratified only the last ten amendments, leaving the first two hanging out there, unratified.

What we now know as the First Amendment would be known as the Third Amendment, had they been ratified as proposed.

The first proposal would have required a member in the House of Representatives for every 50,000 people (today a House Member represents about 700,000 people); the second said that no increase in pay for Congress could occur until there was an intervening election.

In the dustups over the Equal Rights Amendment, the Senate Judiciary Committee looked at all the amendments proposed over the years, and found six amendments floating around unratified. A law was proposed and passed that said, seven years after the enactment of the law, those six proposals would be deemed unratified and, therefore, dead. That gave the states seven more years to look at the six proposals, including the first two, proposed in 1789.

Enough states looked at the second amendment Madison proposed, and ratified it — 34 states — so that it became the 27th Amendment, in 1992.

The First is first in our hearts; the 27th would have been first, had it been ratified by 1791.

And, yes, that means James Madison proposed the first ten amendments, and the 27th Amendment, to the Constitution,. One of Madison’s proposals became law 203 years after he proposed it.

You can’t make that stuff up.

this guy: Bruce Schneier , has some interesting takes on security.

The Patriot Act… (SMH) Part of me thinks that today’s citizens and politicians would never have allowed some of legislation like that Espionage or Sedition Acts to pass in the 21st century. Then I remember the Patriot Act, TSA’s naked body scanners, and Obama’s drones…