One week after the first Congress to sit under the newly ratified Constitution had convened, James Madison, a representative from the Commonwealth of Virginia, address a committee of the House. First, he suggested that the committee should call for the full house to sit as a committee of the whole to here his proposal, but when the committee objected to this, he acquiesced and instead read his prepared remarks into the record. After further debate, however, the committee agreed that Madison's proposal - to add to the Constitution a Bill of Rights - was of sufficient import that it should be referred to a committee of the whole. You can read the full text of Madison's address here.
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