The Bill of Rights Penultimate Draft

“Congress shall make no law establishing articles of faith, or a mode of worship, or prohibiting the free exercise of religion, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition to the government for a redress of grievances.”

This Gazette of the United States includes the version of the proposed constitutional amendments approved by the U.S. Senate on September 9, before a joint committee worked out the final details. The Senate had reduced the seventeen amendments passed by the House to twelve by combining several and rejecting at least one. Both houses finalized the twelve proposed amendments by joint resolution two days later. The first two were rejected, so the amendments here numbered three to twelve became one to ten.

Only minor changes to the language were made during the two weeks that the committee spent finalizing what would ultimately become the 1st Amendment that we recognize today, “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 assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

★ The Gazette of the United States, Sept. 23, 1789, New York. #27215