James Madison introduced the proposed amendments that became the United States Bill of Rights in Congress.
Madison presented his amendments in the House of Representatives on June 8, 1789, during the First Congress. He drew heavily on recommendations from state ratifying conventions and on existing state declarations of rights, especially the Virginia Declaration of Rights.
Congress originally approved 12 proposed amendments on September 25, 1789. The states ratified 10 of them by December 15, 1791, and those 10 became the Bill of Rights. One of the two unratified proposals was eventually adopted as the Twenty-seventh Amendment in 1992.
Madison had initially opposed adding a bill of rights during the Constitutional Convention, but he later supported amendments as a way to answer Anti-Federalist objections and strengthen public confidence in the new Constitution. The Bill of Rights protects freedoms including religion, speech, press, assembly, and petition.