The Indiana Bill of Rights

The first Bill of Rights for Indiana was created when the constitutional convention of the Territory of Indiana met at the Harrison County Court House at Corydon on June 10, 1816. The convention had met for the purpose of drafting a constitution for a state government, a necessary condition to becoming admitted into the Union as a state. There was apparently no question but that a bill of rights should constitute a part of this constitution. Since there seemed to be a general desire to achieve statehood by fall election time, the delegates wasted no time in accomplishing the purpose for which they had come. The convention itself was in session just twenty days, including two Sundays, finishing its labors on Saturday,, June 29. The Bill of Rights was handled with like speed and dispatch. On Wednesday afternoon, June 12, the convention president, Jonathan Jennings, who was shortly thereafter to become the first governor of the state, appointed the committee on the preamble and bill of rights. Two days later, the chairman of the committee, John Badollet, reported to the convention a proposed bill of rights consisting of twenty four sections. Although no record of the debates of this convention was kept, it would appear from the convention journal that these sections received little discussion, and were approved by the convention with only slight changes being made., A glance at the members of the committee on the bill of rights might explain to some extent why the proposed bill of rights passed with so little change. They were for the