f the majority and from the centralized control that was emerging form the Convention in the federal form of government, the Antifederalists insisted on the addition of a bill of rights. The Federalists had deliberately omitted a bill of rights, and so they expressed their opposition to the document. The Bill of Rights would be added as the first ten amendments to the Constitution in 1791. The promise of future amendments was key to gaining the needed support of the Antifederalists for the Constitution: "Many of the recommendations of the state ratifying conventions included specific rights that were later considered by James Madison as he labored to draft what became the Bill of Rights" (Schmidt, Shelley and Bardes 50).
In this sense, the aristocratic element seems to have carried the day and to have structured a document that protected their rights (the male property owners) first, giving them more power as recognition of their greater value. At the same time, the accommodation made to the Antifederalists was more than just compro
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