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The Background Of The Fourth Amendment To The Constitution Of The United States, Part Two, Joseph J. Stengel

University of Richmond Law Review

Upon the conclusion of the Constitutional Convention in 1787 and after the proposed Constitution was submitted by Congress to the states for ratification, there arose a clamor concerning the absence of a bill or declaration of rights therein. Scholars have disagreed as to the basis for this controversy. Story says that the demand was "a matter of very exaggerated declamation and party zeal, for the mere purpose of defeating the Constitution." Cooley concludes that leading statesmen made the want of a bill of rights in the Constitution the ground of a "decided, earnest, and formidable opposition to the confirmation of …