What happened to the two that got away? It’s a worthy question on this date, the anniversary of the passage of the Bill of Rights in 1791.

Image The Constitution’s Bill of Rights is shorter than it used to be.

One was originally the first amendment on the list. It had nothing to do with freedom of speech or religion, but proposed a limit to the number of people each congressional district should have. With the growth of the U.S. population, it would have resulted in about 6,000 members of Congress today — more than double the size of China’s Parliament, the world’s largest legislative body.

The other came second, and dealt with congressional pay rather than the right to bear arms.

Neither was ratified by the states at the time, so only the remaining 10 became the Bill of Rights.

However, a loophole that placed no time limit on ratification — and the work of a determined university student — led to the original second amendment becoming the 27th more than 200 years later.

Anna Schaverien contributed reporting.

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