The Evolution Of The First Amendment Essay -- essays research papers

The Evolution of the First Amendment     The commencement ceremony amendment states, "Congress shall make no law respecting anestablishment of religion, or prohibiting the let go exercise thereof orabridging the freedom of speech, or of the press or the accountability of the peoplepeaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress ofgrievances.(encyclopedia)     The inhabitants of the sexual union American colonies did not have a legalright to express opposition to the British government that ruled them.Nonetheless, throughout the late 1700s, these early Americans did theatrical role theirdis national with the crown. For example they strongly denounced the Britishparliaments enactment of a series of tax levies to pay off a large nationaldebt that England incurred in its septet Years War with France. In newspaperarticles, pamphlets and through boycotts, the colonists raised what would becometheir battle cry "No ta xation without representation" And in 1773, thepeople of the mama Bay Colony demonstrated their outrage at the tax ontea in a dramatic act of civil disobedience, the Boston tea leaf Party.(Eldridge,15)     The stage was set for the birth of the First Amendment, which formallyrecognized the natural and inalienable rights of Americans to think and speakfreely. The first Amendments early years were not merely auspicious.Although the early Americans enjoyed great freedom compared to citizens of othernations, even the Constitutions framer once in power, could resist the stringtemptation to circumvent the First Amendments clear mandate. Before the 1930s,we had no legally protected rights of free speech in anything like the form wenow know it. Critics of the government or government officials, calledseditious libel, was oftenly made a crime. Every state had a seditious libellaw when the Constitution was adopted. And within the decade of the adoption ofthe First A mendment, the founding fathers in congress initiated and passed the inhibitory Alien and Sedition act (1798). This act was used by the dominantFederalists party to prosecute a number of prominent Republican newspapereditors.(Kairys,3) When doubting Thomas Jefferson was elected president in 1801 they alsoprosecuted their critics. More than 2,000 people were prosecuted, and manyserved substantial prison te... ...o preserve freedom ofexpression have taught us anything, it is that the first target of governmentsuppression is never the last. Whenever government gains the power to decidewho can speak and what they can say, the first Amendment rights of all of us arein danger of being violated. But when all people are allowed to express theirviews and ideas, the principles of democracy and liberty are enhanced. Americandemocracy should mean more than the right to picket when you are really upset orpissed at the system and to vote every four years in elections devoid of contentor context. Change will hold, as it has in the past, recognition that freespeech and democracy are political, not narrowly legal, issues. And it willalso require an enlargement of our understanding of such rights to includepublic access to the various mass media.BibliographyEldridge, Larry D. A Distant Heritage The Growth of Free Speech in EarlyAmerica. New York New York University Press, 1994.Kairys, David. The Politics of Law In These Times. New York. Patheon Press, 1991.McWhirter, Darien A. Freedom of Speech, Press, and Assembly, Phoenix AZ OryxPress, 1994.The World Book Encyclopedia.1995.