Who wrote the First Amendment?

Who wrote the First Amendment?

by Brandon
(Jacksonville, Tennessee)

Can you please tell me who wrote the First Amendment to the United States Constitution for a paper I'm writing? Thanks!

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Who wrote the First Amendment?

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Oct 15, 2010
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Who Wrote the First Amendment?
by: The Minuteman

Hi Brandon, so you want to know who wrote the First Amendment? James Madison wrote the First Amendment.

Here is a little of the history behind it. James Madison wrote most of the original US Constitution. He thought it was fine the way he wrote it of course. But it had to be approved by all the states. Each state formed an assembly to vote on the new Constitution. Many of the state assemblies found things they didn't like about the Constitution and many found things they wanted to add. So they came up with a list of "Rights" they wanted to add at the end. Madison thought it wasn't necessary because the Constitution specifically said that the government could only do the things that were listed in it and nothing else. He believed this made it clear that the government would not be able to infringe on any of these rights. Nonetheless, the states wanted these rights listed anyway, just to make doubly clear that the Federal government could not impinge on them. The states eventually agreed to accept the new Constitution on the condition that the First Congress add a Bill of Rights. Consequently Madison came up with a list of twenty amendments that were the most requested from the states. He presented them to the First Congress on March 4, 1789. The Congress approved twelve of them on September 25, 1789. These were then passed on to the states. Remember that in order for an amendment to be made to the US Constitution, 3/4 of the states must agree to it. The first two amendments were rejected by the states at the time, but the remaining ten, including the First Amendment became law on December 15, 1791, when Virginia gave the final yes vote needed to reach the 3/4 threshold.

You can read the original twelve amendments proposed by Congress here.

You can read more about the history of the Bill of Rights here.

You can read more interesting Facts about James Madison here.

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