Thoughts on the First Amendment

The First Amendment is part of the Bill of Rights which the Constitutional Convention added to the Constitution in 1787 at the demand of several of the delegates who wanted to ensure limiting the power of the government with specific definitions of civil liberties. The Bill of Rights was adopted by the states in December 1791.

First Amendment:
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.

“It appears that some school officials, teachers, and parents have assumed that religious expression of any type is either inappropriate or forbidden altogether in public schools; however, nothing in the First Amendment converts our public schools into religion-free zones.”
-Bill Clinton, 42nd President of the United States of America

"The Founding Fathers gave the free press the protection it must have [to] bare the secrets of government and inform the people."
-Hugo Black

"Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost."
-Thomas Jefferson


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Quotes on Freedom of Speech

Freedom of speech? Are there those who would seek to deprive us of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution? Here are some quotes on the subject...

“Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.”
—Harry Truman

"Once the government can demand of a publisher the names of the purchasers of his publications, the free press as we know it disappears. Then the spectre of a government agent will look over the shoulder of everyone who reads. The purchase of a book or pamphlet today may result in a subpoena tomorrow. Fear of criticism goes with every person into the bookstall. The subtle, imponderable pressures of the orthodox lay hold. Some will fear to read what is unpopular, what the powers-that-be dislike. When the light of publicity may reach any student, any teacher, inquiry will be discouraged. The books and pamphlets that are critical of the administration, that preach an unpopular policy in domestic or foreign affairs, that are in disrepute in the orthodox school of thought will be suspect and subject to investigation. The press and its readers will pay a heavy price in harassment. But that will be minor in comparison with the menace of [345 U.S. 41, 58] the shadow which government will cast over literature that does not follow the dominant party line. If the lady from Toledo can be required to disclose what she read yesterday and what she will read tomorrow, fear will take the place of freedom in the libraries, book stores, and homes of the land. Through the harassment of hearings, investigations, reports, and subpoenas government will hold a club over speech and over the press."
—U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas,
UNITED STATES v. RUMELY, 345 U.S. 41 (1953)

“Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech.”
—Benjamin Franklin

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Founding Father Quotes on the Second Amendment

The second amendment has been receiving quite a bit of press lately. Are the citizens in the United States going to be allowed to continue to bear arms or will more bans be put into practice? We thought you'd enjoy reading some quotes from our founding fathers on this subject.

"Americans have the right and advantage of being armed – unlike the citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms."
– James Madison

"The constitutions of most of our States assert that all power is inherent in the people; that... it is their right and duty to be at all times armed."
--Thomas Jefferson

"We should not forget that the spark which ignited the American Revolution was caused by the British attempt to confiscate the firearms of the colonists."
- Patrick Henry

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Hold on to the Constitution

"Hold on, my friends, to the Constitution and to the Republic for which it stands. Miracles do not cluster, and what has happened once in 6000 years, may not happen again. Hold on to the Constitution, for if the American Constitution should fail, there will be anarchy throughout the world."- Daniel Webster

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Judges' View

The public welfare demands that constitutional cases must be decided according to the terms of the Constitution itself, and not according to judges’ views of fairness, reasonableness, or justice.

-Justice Hugo L Black

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Quote on The Two Parties and the Constitution

"There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble opinion, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution."
-- John Adams

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Quotes to Ponder

"Don't interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties." - Abraham Lincoln

“The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government - lest it come to dominate our lives and interests.” -Patrick Henry

"The Constitution is the one guide which I will never abandon." -George Washington

This Constitution Moment is brought to you by the James Waldrop Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution, of Fayetteville, Georgia.

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