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Drafts and revisions leading to the final version
==Background==
==Background==
A group of colonial leaders known as the [[Anti-Federalists]] expressed concern that the Constitution contained no guarantee of individual liberties, and they pressed for the document to be amended. Their insistence led to the creation of the [[Bill of Rights]] by [[James Madison]] in 1791.<ref>http://www.cas.unt.edu/~jryan/AntiFeds.html</ref>
A group of colonial leaders known as the [[Anti-Federalists]] expressed concern that the Constitution contained no guarantee of individual liberties, and they pressed for the document to be amended. Their insistence led to the creation of the [[Bill of Rights]] by [[James Madison]] in 1791.<ref>http://www.cas.unt.edu/~jryan/AntiFeds.html</ref> Many of the amendments went through several revisions before they became the final versions we are familiar with today and the First Amendment itself went through eight revisions. In early versions of the First Amendment, the issue of ''Conscience'' was included. ''Conscience'' in religious matters was a big deal.
Madison was the principal author of the Bill of Rights, including the First Amendment.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=d_Nyi_Ur3pAC&pg=PA267 The Columbia Documentary History of Religion in America Since 1945]</ref><ref>[http://www.billofrightsinstitute.org/founding-documents/bill-of-rights/ Bill of Rights of the United States of America (1791)]</ref>
Madison was the principal author of the Bill of Rights, including the First Amendment.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=d_Nyi_Ur3pAC&pg=PA267 The Columbia Documentary History of Religion in America Since 1945]</ref><ref>[http://www.billofrightsinstitute.org/founding-documents/bill-of-rights/ Bill of Rights of the United States of America (1791)]</ref> He offered the original version of the amendment, which was the third of the articles<ref>[https://www.archives.gov/files/legislative/resources/bill-of-rights/CCBR_IIA.pdf Congress Creates the Bill of Rights]</ref> as so:
<blockquote>The civil rights of none shall be abridged on account of religious belief or worship, nor shall any national religion be established, nor shall the full and equal rights of conscience be in any manner, or on any pretext, infringed. No State shall violate the equal rights of conscience, or the freedom of the press, or the trial by jury in criminal cases.</blockquote>
House committees made modifications to this proposal, changing the language:
<blockquote>No religion shall be established by law, nor shall the equal rights of conscience be infringed.</blockquote>
Next, Representative Samuel Livermore offered the following revision:
<blockquote>Congress shall make no laws touching religion, or infringing the rights of conscience.</blockquote>
Fisher Ames offered another revision, which is much closer to the final revision:
<blockquote>Congress shall make no law establishing religion, or to prevent the free exercise thereof, or to infringe the rights of conscience.</blockquote>
Congress further debated these revisions until the final was produced:
<blockquote>Congress shall make no law establishing religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, nor shall the rights of conscience be infringed.</blockquote>
<blockquote>Congress shall make no law establishing religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.</blockquote>
<blockquote>Congress shall make no law establishing articles of faith or a mode of worship, or prohibiting the free exercise of religion.</blockquote>
<blockquote>Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.</blockquote>
== Conservative Interpretation ==
== Conservative Interpretation ==