N.J. Bill of Rights Day Honors 1789 Ratification of the U.S. Charter of Liberties
TRENTON, NJ – On November 20, New Jersey will mark the 219th anniversary of becoming the first state to ratify the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution, commonly called the Bill of Rights. To commemorate Bill of Rights Day, the State Archives, Department of State, will place New Jersey’s original Bill on public view in the Archives’ Manuscript Research Room on November 20 and 21, 2008.
“New Jersey is so fortunate to be one of a handful of states that has retained its original Bill of Rights, which proposed twelve amendments to the new United States Constitution. The ten amendments ratified by the states guarantee our most fundamental American freedoms. Citizens who have viewed this priceless piece of history describe the experience as moving and memorable,” said Secretary of State Nina Mitchell Wells.
In all, fourteen large parchment manuscripts of the document were produced and signed by Vice President John Adams and House Speaker Frederick Augustus Muhlenberg on September 25, 1789. Thirteen were sent out to the original states for ratification. The copy retained by Congress is now exhibited in the rotunda of the National Archives in Washington, D.C.
On November 20, 1789, New Jersey became the first state to ratify the Bill of Rights. Of the 12 amendments proposed, New Jersey actually approved eleven. The first, relating to how federal representation would be determined based on population was ratified by New Jersey but not by the required number of states. New Jersey originally rejected the second, relating to the salaries of members of Congress, but then approved it in 1992 as the 27th Amendment. Articles 3 through 12 became the first ten amendments, guaranteeing the fundamental rights and freedoms of all American citizens.
New Jersey’s original Bill of Rights has left the state on only three occasions since its receipt by the State Legislature in 1789.
The Bill’s first trip out-of-state was to Philadelphia for conservation treatment and framing in the mid-1980s.
Its second trip in 1991 was for the public display as the featured document in a national exhibition commemorating the Bill of Rights bicentennial at Independence Hall National Park in 1991.
In 2006, New Jersey’s Bill of Rights left the state for the third time for another short trip across the Delaware, where it was digitally scanned at the Athenaeum of Philadelphia’s Regional Digital Imaging Center.
A full transcription and image of New Jersey’s original parchment Bill of Rights may be found on the Division of Archives and Records Management website at: http://www.njarchives.org/links/treasures/usconstitution/billofrights.html
The State Archives is located at 225 West State Street in Trenton.
To learn more about the diverse array of services and programs located within the Department of State, visit www.state.nj.us/state.
