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Posted: 3/6/2006 8:12:33 PM EDT
I'm having a total brain cramp and I need to help my son with his home work. What lead our fore fathers to writing the First Amendment?
Also do you think the Amendments were written in order of importance or coincidence? |
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The British seized printing presses, broke up public meetings and protests, and ignored our attempts to peacably resolve our problems with their conduct, among a couple of other items.
the Declaration of Independance's list of greivances gives a pretty good, if general, idea of what they were doing. |
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We don't have a first amendment anymore.
We have newspeak and political correctness. Just look around. |
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We have a bill of rights because two states wouldn't sign the constitution without it. The 1st amendment is important because the ability to speak freely and openly about governmental policies to force change is the driving force behind our republic. |
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Thanks DoubleFeed, I can't believe I could remember this! |
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I understand why we have the First Amendment what I'm asking is what lead our forefather specifically to write this particular amendment. What events lead up to this? DoubleFeed I'm reading the Declaration of Independence and I don't see where they specifically point out where their freedoms of speech, religion etc was denied? |
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I am such a post whore! |
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I told you. Two states refused to ratify the constitution without a bill of rights. |
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He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only. He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people. He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within. He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands. He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers. He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries. He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance. He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the consent of our legislatures. He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power. He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation: For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us: For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States: For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world: For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent: For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury: For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences: For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies: For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments: For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us. He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation. He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands. He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions. In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends. That's just one example I can see. |
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Beginning with Roger Williams, the colonies had a strong history of government non-involvement in religion. Britain had been splintered by sectarian civil war, and the Founders had no wish to see the same occur here.
Regarding free speech, the founders were good Liberals, they believed in individual freedom very strongly and sought ways to protect the individual from both society and the government. |
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DAMN! I love that statement! Our founding fathers were classical liberals, long before FDR and his socialist assholes hijacked the word! |
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This is hog wash. The Constitution was radified and implimented the Bill of Rights are Amendments. The compromise was how the powers of the Congress was divided. |
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Not to mention they established a state church that everyone had to belong to or suffer a penalty. |
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The British didn't really do this in America though did they? I've been looking for evidence of that. We did have some Puritan Principals that were over bearing to say the least imposed but it seemed that was instigated by the local authorities more so? |
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People like the Puritans came to America specifically because of the nonsense with the Church of England. That was one of the reasons for the religion clauses in the 1st ammendment. |
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Exactly. Lots of people here were here for exactly that reason. They were free to worship as they pleased in the colonies and England seemed happy to have them leave. |
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___ A segue to the all-important 2nd Ammendment! |
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I always viewed the first amendment as the sole inspiration to write the second.... "Hmm....the 1st Amendment is gonna need some insurance.....hmmmm" |
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http://apollo3.com/~jameso/first5.html |
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Patty, the first ten ammendments, AKA the Bill of Rights, were ratified with the Constitution, and it would not have been ratified otherwise.
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I have too. Hence the reason I wrote and asked if you think the Bill of Rights were written in order of importance. I was talking with my son's classmates about that and they all figured it was just a ramdom process. They don't know Madison too well do they? |
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Hi Patty...look also at the documents of George Mason on this topic.
Ed |
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I remember what you're talking about patty . . .but couldn't you BOTH be right? |
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Everyone knows that the TRUE purpose of the first amendment was to prevent public displays of the 10 commandments and to keep students from praying in schools.
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Yes, and to prevent a city from celebrating |
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I think you're right but I can't find proof of it on the Internet. It reads that the Constitution was ratified and the Bill of Rights were Amended two years later. If I remember correctly Virginia and IIRC Vermont had a what to do about it but I can't find anything on that particular subject - just the "Great Compromise" in regards to the division of Congress. In the matters of religion I can't find any specific laws England tried to cram on us that limited our freedoms of religion. In fact no mention of religious oppression is mentioned in the Crimes against the King in our Declaration of Independence. God I love these kind of assignments! I teh suck at Physics. |
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