Did Washington violate the First Amendment?

  • TERENCE P. JEFFREY
    TERENCE P. JEFFREY
Did George Washington in his first act as president violate the first principle soon to be enshrined in the First Amendment? Did the Congress that approved the First Amendment compel him to do so? On April 7, 1789, three weeks before Washington was inaugurated, the Journal of the Senate reported that the Senate had ordered “a committee ... to take under consideration the manner of electing…

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