Did Washington violate the First Amendment?
News Staff
Tuesday, July 5, 2022
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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 Chaplains, and to confer thereupon with a committee of the House of Representatives.”