The Saving Grace In Our Constitution

At a critical time when arguably the life of the individual citizen is under scrutiny for being different, authentic or original James Madison’s writing on why America needed a ninth amendment is extremely important.

The ninth amendment leaves open in my mind God’s intention for the individual’s right to a life he or she chooses to live freely in peace and unencumbered. The ninth amendment found in the United States Constitution clearly states:

The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

Madison, who authored the ninth amendment, argued the fallacy in man’s thinking that he could simply list all the inate/inherited rights of a human being. That fete is well beyond our reach. How do you begin to reflect on the enormity of “free will” or “inalienable rights” birthed in the souls of man by the Creator?

I came across this quote by Madison as he moved to have the ninth amendment adopted to insure that the list he and others attempted in the Bill of Rights had breath and depth beyond the stated:

''It has been objected also against a bill of rights, that, by enumerating particular exceptions to the grant of power, it would disparage those rights which were not placed in that enumeration; and it might follow by implication, that those rights which were not singled out, were intended to be assigned into the hands of the General Government, and were consequently insecure. This is one of the most plausible arguments I have ever heard against the admission of a bill of rights into this system; but, I conceive, that it may be guarded against. I have attempted it, as gentlemen may see by turning to the last clause of the fourth resolution.''

The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. Madison is clear in his assessments that Government needed to have an impenetrable barrier that protected the rights of citizens, a barrier that would serve to thwart attempts to curb and to limit the true rights, realized and unrealized, of individuals. He was equally clear that the ninth amendment is an important safeguard and today more than ever it is vital that this framer’s intentions and courageous attempts to insure the rights of citizens are strongly protected are emphatically asserted.

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