On June 8th, 1789 James Madison introduced a slate of amendments to the recently ratified United States Constitution. The ten amendments ultimately ratified by the states became known as the Bill of Rights and remain central to the American experiment.

North Carolina played a key role in ensuring the addition of the Bill of Rights, joining with New York, Virginia, and Rhode Island in reluctance to ratify the United States Constitution of 1787. At the Hillsborough Convention of 1788 Anti-Federalists outnumbered the Federalists arguing in favor of ratification of the new Constitution. The convention favored a list of amendments to be submitted to the United States Congress that would place more limits on government power and ensure the individual rights they had won from the British. 

Ultimately the Hillsborough Convention adjourned in August 1788, having voted 184 to 84 to neither outright reject nor approve the proposed Constitution, until amendments were incorporated. This became known as “The Great Refusal.”

In response to the Hillsborough Convention’s “Refusal,” James Madison prepared the amendments that became known as the Bill of Rights.

In Madison’s notes from the debate in the United States’ House of Representatives on June 8th, 1789 he wrote on the need for the Bill of Rights:

1.   to prove fedts. [Federalists] friends to liberty

2.   remove remaining inquietudes

3.   bring in N.C. & R. Island

4.   to improve the Constitution

Following Madison’s actions North Carolina became the 12th state to ratify the new Constitution in November 1789 at a convention held in Fayetteville. 
The spirit of independence and belief that limits should be placed on government power persists among North Carolinians today. From limiting the taxation power of government to letting families make their own choices with education, North Carolina remains a state dedicated to individual liberty.