On September 25, 1789, Congress passed a resolution offering twelve amendments to the newly ratified Constitution, and ten of them, known as the Bill of Rights because they address individual liberties, were added to the Constitution on December 15, 1791; the first two, concerning congressional representation and compensation, were not adopted as part of the Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights guarantees freedom of religion, speech, press, and assembly; the right to petition Congress for redress of grievances; the right to keep and bear arms; protection against quartering troops in homes without the owner's consent; protection against unreasonable searches and seizures; grand jury indictment for capital crimes, protection against double jeopardy and self-incrimination, and due process when life, liberty, and property are at stake; rights in criminal prosecutions to a speedy and public jury trial, to confront witnesses, and to counsel; the right to jury trial in common law suits; protection from excess bail or fines and from cruel and unusual punishment; recognition that enumerated rights do not deny others retained by the people; and reservation to the states of powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution nor prohibited to the states. The original resolution is on permanent display at the National Archives Building in Washington, D.C. The Statue of Liberty, a universal symbol of freedom and democracy, was a gift from the people of France to the United States in celebration of America's 100th year of independence. The copper statue, designed by the French sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi and named Liberty Enlightening the World, is further associated with Emma Lazarus's sonnet The New Colossus, written for a December 1883 auction to raise money for construction of the pedestal and remembered for its closing invitation to the tired, poor, and homeless. On October 28, 1886, President Grover Cleveland accepted the statue on behalf of the citizens of the United States, and thirty-eight years later, on October 15, 1924, it was designated a national monument. The original deed of gift is in the National Archives of the United States.
