I was recently looking at the copies of some of the original founding documents of the American government. When I was looking at the Bill of Rights, I noticed that the first and second articles are not the First and Second Amendments to the Constitution. Can please someone explain what exactly these articles are, if they are not considered amendments to the constitution? Thanks in advance!
Because not all of the items on the Bill of Rights were ratified. An amendment is a law that amends the US constitution, if it isn't passed, it doesn't amend, so it's not an amendment. The Bill of Rights was a list of 12 articles (cut down from 17 in the first pass), each of which had to be ratified individually. The first two articles were not ratified, so they never became amendments. No different from any other proposed law that doesn't get passed.
In this particular case, one of those two articles was introduced again later. Article the First, dealing with the apportionment of Congressional seats, remains unratified, although Congress has since passed laws covering the issue, while Article the Second, dictating that Congressional pay changes could not take effect until after the next election, was actually ratified in 1992, becoming the 27th Amendment.