Why was there an outcry when the constitution did not originally contain a general listing of the rights of th people?

Answer 1

There was an outcry because the people were not receiving equality and privileges.

Without the rights that the constitution did not list, the people were stuggleing throughout life situations.

More InformationIt is helpful to keep in mind that, as the US Constitution was being written -- and argued over -- the states were still recovering from a war of independence against a despotic English king. People were sorely mindful of the dangers of a powerful central government, and were fearful of losing their freshly-won rights to a new one.

Yet the group that prevailed at the Constitutional Convention, centered around James Madison, held that the rights of the people derived from "natural law," and were embodied in individuals themselves, rather than granted by any government. Think back to the sentence in the Declaration of Independence about "inalienable rights." Madison's group, which was largely responsible for writing the Constitution, simply didn't think that there was a need to even mention these rights.

Not everyone shared this point of view, however. People and states wanted something on paper to protect their rights, and proposals for such language poured in. In order to obtain the willingness of the states to accept the Constitution, the framers made a number of changes. As originally ratified by the states, the Constitution carried ten amendments, which later became known as the Bill of Rights.

In keeping with the sentiments of the time, and much unlike later amendments, the Bill of Rights is a collection of prohibitions aimed at admonishing the new central government not to do certain things. The first ten amendments are aimed squarely at the new federal government, and are full of phrases like "shall make no law," "shall not be violated," and "shall not be infringed."

To make sure they got their point across, the framers included the Ninth Amendment:

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

And just in case that wasn't clear enough, they threw in the Tenth Amendment:

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.