[–] CrudOMatic ago
Jefferson wanted Bill of Rights for new Constitution
Jefferson was serving as ambassador to France when the Constitutional Convention met in 1787 to replace the Articles of Confederation, but he remained well informed about events in America, largely because of his correspondence with his good friend James Madison. Jefferson recognized that a stronger federal government would make the country more secure economically and militarily, but he feared that a strong central government might become too powerful, restricting citizens’ rights.
He therefore wanted the new Constitution to be accompanied by a written “bill of rights” to guarantee personal liberties, such as freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom from standing armies, trial by jury, and habeas corpus. Jefferson’s correspondence with James Madison helped to convince Madison to introduce a bill of rights into the First Congress. After ratification by the requisite number of states, the first ten amendments to the Constitution, known as the Bill of Rights, went into effect in 1791.
Jefferson drafted a precursor bill to the First Amendent
In Everson v. Board of Education (1947), Justice Hugo L. Black and some of his colleagues on the Supreme Court traced the origins of the First Amendment to a bill establishing religious freedom that Jefferson drafted and introduced in the Virginia General Assembly in 1779. The bill was not passed until 1786, when, through the efforts of James Madison, it was adopted as the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom.
The statute, which had three main sections, explained why compulsory religion requirements were wrong, stated that men were free to express their opinions on religion and choose how or if to worship without having their rights as citizens diminished, and explained how the right of freedom of religion was a natural right of mankind.