Constitutional Convention Of 1787 The First Amendment Encyclopedia

The First Amendment (Amendment I) to the United States Constitution prevents Congress from making laws respecting an establishment of religion; prohibiting the free exercise of religion; or abridging the freedom of speech, the freedom... It was adopted on December 15, 1791, as one of the ten amendments that constitute the Bill of Rights. In the original draft of the Bill of Rights, what is now the First Amendment occupied third place. The first two articles were not ratified by the states, so the article on disestablishment and free speech ended up being first.[1][2] The Bill of Rights was proposed to assuage Anti-Federalist opposition to Constitutional ratification. Initially, the First Amendment applied only to laws enacted by the Congress, and many of its provisions were interpreted more narrowly than they are today.

Beginning with Gitlow v. New York (1925), the Supreme Court applied the First Amendment to states—a process known as incorporation—through the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The First Amendment applies only to state actors.[a][3] With regard to religious freedom, the Court has frequently cited Thomas Jefferson's call for "a wall of separation between church and State", a metaphor for the separation of religions from government and vice versa... Speech rights were expanded significantly in a series of 20th- and 21st-century court decisions which protected various forms of political speech, anonymous speech, campaign finance, pornography, and school speech; these rulings also defined a... The Free Press Clause protects publication of information and opinions, and applies to a wide variety of media.

In Near v. Minnesota (1931) and New York Times Co. v. United States (1971), the Supreme Court ruled that the First Amendment protected against prior restraint—pre-publication censorship—in almost all cases. The Petition Clause protects the right to petition all branches and agencies of government for action. In addition to the right of assembly guaranteed by this clause, the Court has also ruled that the amendment implicitly protects freedom of association.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to... The Constitutional Convention was a signal event in the history of federalism for it was there that the American style of federalism originated. The innovations in theory and design introduced in American federalism have in turn revolutionized the practice of federalism worldwide. The Convention was the gathering of delegates from 12 of the new American states—Rhode Island never did participate—that wrote the Constitution for the union. The meeting, originally scheduled to open in Philadelphia on May 14, 1787, did not actually begin until May 25, when a sufficient number of delegations finally arrived to make it possible to conduct deliberations. The Convention ended on September 17, when the delegates signed the draft constitution they had prepared.

The proposed constitution was to replace the Articles of Confederation, the constitution of the American union in force when the Convention met. Even though the Articles had been formally in place only since 1781, the Constitutional Convention was the fruit of many years’ efforts throughout America to revise the existing confederal union. Those efforts, largely frustrated by the requirement of unanimous consent by all states to any changes in the Articles, had reached a peak of sorts in the Annapolis Convention of 1786. That meeting had been called to discuss commercial matters of mutual interest to the states, matters over which the government under the Articles had no power. The Annapolis Convention fell far short of success, however, for delegates from only 5 states appeared by the time the conference was scheduled to begin. One reason why attendance was so sparse was the prevailing conviction that more than commercial reform was needed to invigorate the governance of the union.

In line with that thought, the delegates who did come to Annapolis, rather than concede the failure of their assembly, took the occasion to call for a general convention to meet in Philadelphia the... One reason for the better response to this second call for a general gathering was the outbreak of Shays’s Rebellion in western Massachusetts in August 1786. This rebellion was the result of an economic downturn coupled with the effort by Massachusetts to pay off its war debt quickly through heavy taxes, the results of which were a spate of farm... The Massachusetts militia was able to handle the uprising, but a wave of concern was felt throughout the union, for the Articles government had once again proved its feebleness when it was unable to... At one time or another, 55 delegates from the 12 participating states took part in the Convention, but there was fluctuation at the fringes as some delegates came and went. At one point, for example, New York was completely unrepresented, for the majority of its delegates, quite unsympathetic to the direction in which the Convention was moving, just went home.

The delegates were for the most part among the most distinguished men in the United States, including George Washington and Benjamin Franklin, probably the two best-known figures in the United States. All the delegates were prominent in the politics of their home states and many, like James Madison, had been active in the Government of the Confederation during and after the Revolution. Thirty-nine of the fifty-five had served in the Confederation Congress. Important figures were absent as well. Thomas Jefferson and John Adams were in Europe as diplomats. Moreover, some well-known leaders, like Patrick Henry of Virginia, suspicious of the intentions of those supporting the Convention, declined to attend.

Some of these men, like Henry and fellow Virginian Richard Henry Lee, became leaders of the movement to oppose ratification of the new constitution after the Convention concluded its work. After the resounding failure of previous efforts to reform the Articles, the success of the Convention is all the more remarkable. Three factors seem especially significant. First, the situation facing the American union was increasingly recognized as rather desperate. In addition to the scare of Shays’s Rebellion, the government under the Articles faced financial insolvency, ineffectiveness in foreign relations, and weakness at home. A consensus had grown that some change was necessary if the union was to survive.

Secondly, some of the delegates had begun to think about the problems of union in a more than ad hoc fashion. Previous efforts at reform had been narrowly focused on particular problems as they emerged. During the year between the Annapolis and Philadelphia gatherings, James Madison in particular had been thinking about the needs of federal governance in a broader perspective. The problem of the Articles, he concluded, derived not from this or that particular defect, but from more fundamental errors of theory and design. The approach to both federal union and republican governance needed a major overhaul. The broader perspectives that Madison and others brought to Philadelphia helped break through the various stalemates that had dominated politics pre-1787.

The Constitutional Convention was held at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from 25 May to 17 September 1787. Spurred on by economic troubles left over from the American Revolution and compounded by the weak Articles of Confederation, delegates from twelve states met to draft a new framework of governance, the United States... In March 1781, the Articles of Confederation went into effect as the framework of governance for the fledgling United States, after having been ratified by all thirteen states. Under the Articles, each state essentially operated as a semi-independent republic, bound to one another in a loose 'perpetual union'. The federal government – which at the time consisted only of a unicameral Congress – was intentionally kept weak, to ensure the sovereignty and independence of the states. Congress' only real powers were those relating to war and foreign affairs, and even then, it needed the consent of at least nine states before it could declare war or borrow money from foreign...

The framers believed that they needed to keep the federal government weak to protect the rights and liberties of American citizens; their recent experience with the British Parliament seemed to suggest that a powerful... But, before long it would become apparent that weak governments carried their own sets of issues that would be just as dangerous. The most glaring problem was Congress' inability to levy its own taxes. Rather than raise its own money, Congress instead had to rely on donations from the states to fill the national treasury. But, especially after states began to focus on their own interests after the end of the American Revolutionary War, these donations were not consistently forthcoming. This left Congress with no funds to pay federal soldiers or meet its many other financial obligations.

Nor did Congress have the power to compel the states to send money or comply with any other federal legislation. Several attempts to amend the Articles to allow Congress to raise money through tariffs were vetoed by the states. Additionally, a lack of unified foreign policy left Congress ill-equipped to deal with foreign powers, with Britain, France, and Spain all putting restrictions on American trade that the federal government could not retaliate against. Finally, Congress had been unable to respond to Shays' Rebellion when it broke out in western Massachusetts in late 1786. Although the rebellion was eventually suppressed by a privately funded army, it led to fears that future insurrections would not be crushed so easily. For these, and other, reasons, many Americans became convinced that the Articles of Confederation were not working and that unless the Articles were revised, the United States would soon unravel.

This reality weighed heavily on the minds of the delegates who met in Annapolis, Maryland, on 11 September 1786. Representing five states (New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Virginia), the delegates had merely been sent to discuss trade between states. But as their discussion touched on other issues caused by the weak Articles of Confederation, the delegates realized that something drastic had to be done. In their final report to Congress, drafted by Alexander Hamilton of New York, the delegates proposed that a constitutional convention should be held in Philadelphia the following May to discuss revisions to the Articles. On 21 February 1787, Congress endorsed the suggestions of the Annapolis Convention, and stated that it would write up a report on which changes to the Articles were necessary. Ultimately, twelve of the thirteen states decided to send delegates to the upcoming Constitutional Convention – the sole holdout was Rhode Island, which believed there was nothing wrong with the existing Articles of Confederation...

On 3 May 1787, James Madison of Virginia rode into Philadelphia, several weeks before the convention was scheduled to begin. A short, slender man with a weak voice, Madison was soon to cast a large shadow over the convention. The other delegates from Virginia were soon in the city as well. They included Edmund Randolph, the scion of an old and distinguished family currently serving as state governor, George Mason, author of the Virginia 'Declaration of Rights', as well as other prominent citizens George Wythe,... In the weeks prior to the Convention, these Virginians conferred together in the house Madison was renting, coming up with a plan even as the other states' delegations trickled into Philadelphia. Uploaded by station02.cebu on July 16, 2020

People Also Search

• Constitutional Convention of 1787 | The First Amendment Encyclopedia
• CQ Press Books - Encyclopedia of the First Amendment - Constitutional ...
• Constitutional Convention - Encyclopedia.com
• Constitutional Convention | History & Compromises | Britannica
• Constitutional Convention | Constitution Annotated | Congress.gov ...
• First Amendment to the United States Constitution - Wikipedia
• Constitutional Convention of 1787 - Center for the Study of Federalism
• Constitutional Convention - World History Encyclopedia
• The Constitutional Convention of 1787 : a comprehensive encyclopedia of ...
• Birth of the First Amendment | The First Amendment Encyclopedia