Federalist No. 84: Hamilton's Case Against a Bill of Rights

In Federalist No. 84, published in 1788, Alexander Hamilton gave the most famous argument against adding a bill of rights. He said bills of rights began as bargains between kings and subjects, like Magna Carta, and made little sense in a government created by the people themselves. The Constitution, he argued, was itself a bill of rights because it granted only limited powers and already protected habeas corpus, jury trials and other liberties.

Most strikingly, he warned that listing rights could be dangerous: why declare that things shall not be done which there is no power to do? A list might imply that the government had power over everything not mentioned. Critics found this unconvincing because the Constitution's broad clauses could be read expansively. Hamilton's warning did not stop the Bill of Rights, but it shaped it: the Ninth Amendment was written precisely to prevent the list from being read as complete.