...declared: That the people have an equal, natural, and unalienable right freely and peaceably to exercise their religion, according to the dictates of conscience;...be favored or established by law in preference to others.19 Resolutions passed by the North Carolina and Rhode Island Conventions echoed Virginia's "Bill...

...the Rhode Island convention.9 New York had recommended that the Constitution be amended to provide that "no religious sect or society ought to be favored or established by law in preference to others."10 What these states, and others, were asking for, besides a guarantee of religious liberty,...

...that "Congress may establish any religion." 20 New York submitted an amendment on religion stating that "no Religious Sect or Society ought to be favored or established by Law in preference to others." 21 In Connecticut, Oliver Ellsworth, replying to criticisms of the Constitution, pointed out that Americans...

...that "Congress shall make no laws touching Religion." Virginia preferred a clause "that no particular religious sect or society ought to be favored or established by Law in preference to others." New York, North Carolina, and Rhode Island used either identical or almost identical language in their...

...qualifications for the militia was left to the governor. Virginia Bill of Rights. June 12. 1776— "Sec. 13 That the people have a right to keep and bear arms, that a well regulated militia, composed of the body of people trained lo arms, is the proper, natural and safe defense of a free state."...

...was that "the people have an equal, natural, and unalienable right freely and peaceably to exercise their religion, according to the dictates of conscience;...be favored or established by law in preference to others."116 Rhode Island, the state affording the greatest degree of religious liberty, placed a similar...

...right to the free exercise of religion according to the dictates of conscience, and that no particular religious sect or society ought to be favored or established by Law in preference to others. AMENDMENTS TO THE BODY OF THE CONSTITUTION First, That each State in the Union shall respectively retain...

...of any one sect or denomination to another shall ever be established by law." Ibid., pp. 442-3. 12. "That the people have a right to keep and bear arms: that a well regulated militia composed of the body of the people trained to arms, is the proper, natural and safe defence of a free...

...furnishing them.11 But Madison's 80. The Virginia convention urged the adoption of the following language: That the people have a right to keep and bear arms; that a well-regulated militia, composed of the body of the people trained to arms, is the proper, naturaJ,...

...establishment of any one sect, in prejudice to the rest." And Patrick Henry argued that "no particular sect or society ought to be favored or established, by law, in preference to others."198 Aiding the growth of diversity was the disaffiliation of religious institutions from parental...