Why did the authors of the original Constitution omit a Bill of Rights?

Question

Why was a Bill of Rights added soon after the ratification of the Constitution?

Also why was the Constitution ratified to begin with?

Answer 1

Because they thought the general prohibitions contained in the first six articles would be sufficient.

And some were concerned that by enumerating specific rights as protected, the government and the courts would believe that only those rights are protected and not any others. Hence the 9th Amendment, which is largely ignored by the courts entirely.

Answer 2

The writers assumed that the rights of the people were automatically protected, and required no clarification. The Bill of Rights was added to satisfy one of the States, so that they would ratify it. It is a good thing that we have it, because the government would probably be torturing everyday people, instead of terrorists!

Answer 3

They were thinking mostly about how to make the government function smoothly, after the disaster of the Articles of Confederation. It was only after the fact that it occurred to people to say "Wait a minute, we've talked a lot about the rights of the government, what about the rights of the people?"

Answer 4

part of the reason was that additions were needed. another part was to quickly validate and legitimize the amendment process