After the emergence of the United States Constitution at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787, James Madison felt the need to compose a set of rights. He said, he "wished the plan had been prefaced by a Bill of Rights." In response to this comment, Elbridge Gerry suggested a committee to prepare such a bill, but the delegates defeated the motion, not because of opposition but because they felt it unnecessary. Opponents of the ratification of the Constitution used the fact of the absence of a bill of rights as a reason to reject the Constitution. Madison along with the Federalists quickly realized that they would have to offer to make amendments to the Constitution. Because of this offer, many of the states that hesitated to ratify the Constitution went with the Federalists and decided to accept it as law.
After the First Congress, Madison took it upon himself to compose a list of amendments to make to the Constitution. In September of 1789 Madison had finished his list of amendments and submitted them to the House and Senate. Within six months of when the first ten amendments, the Bill of Rights as they would come to be referred to, were submitted for approval by the states, 9 states had already ratified them. On December 15, 1791, with Virginia's ratification of the amendments, the Bill of Rights became part of the Constitution and in turn part of the law.
In actuality, the Bill of Rights was a list of twelve amendments to the Constitution. The last two dealt with the terms of Senators and how long a person could hold office. These two amendments were rejected by the Congress and were not made into law.