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1 <br /> ORANGE COUNTY <br /> BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS <br /> ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT <br /> Meeting Date: December 12, 2017 <br /> Action Agenda <br /> Item No. 4-d <br /> SUBJECT: Proclamation — Bill of Rights Day <br /> DEPARTMENT: Human Rights and Relations <br /> ATTACHMENT(S): INFORMATION CONTACT: <br /> Proclamation Annette Moore, Director, 245-2317 <br /> PURPOSE: To adopt a proclamation to officially recognize "Bill of Rights Day" in Orange <br /> County as December 15, 2017. <br /> BACKGROUND: The United States Constitution was ratified by nine of the thirteen states in <br /> 1788. However, residents of the new United States of America were concerned that a <br /> centralized government would interfere with states' rights and restrict individual liberties that the <br /> Declaration of Independence proclaimed were inherent and unalienable. <br /> James Madison, a member of the 1st Congress and the "Father of the Constitution", was <br /> charged with reviewing more than 200 proposed changes to the Constitution made by citizens of <br /> the new country. Madison proposed 19 amendments to the Constitution. Congress approved <br /> 12, and 10 of those amendments were ratified by the states. The specific government <br /> prohibitions included limiting freedom of expression, religion, assembly and the press; the right <br /> to bear arms; not to be a witness against oneself, to due process, to a speedy trial, to confront <br /> your accuser, and to a trial by jury; protection against unreasonable search and seizure and <br /> cruel and unusual punishment. The Bill of Rights ensured not only states' rights were protected <br /> but also that the government could not restrict those inherent and unalienable rights and <br /> freedoms that every person has. The ten amendments, limiting governmental power, were <br /> called "The Bill of Rights" and ratified on December 15, 1791. <br /> Fourteen original copies of the twelve proposed amendments to the United States constitution <br /> were prepared by three federal clerks in 1789. On September 25, 1789 after Congress ratified <br /> the first ten amendments, a copy of the Bill of Rights was sent to each state. After North <br /> Carolina ratified the Bill of Rights, the original document was housed in the state's archives in <br /> Raleigh. <br /> In 1865, a Union infantryman broke into the state archives and stole documents including the <br /> Bill of Rights. The Union soldier took the Bill of Rights to Ohio, where he pawned it. The <br /> document briefly resurfaced in the 1920's. The Bill of Rights was then acquired by an antique <br />