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Under God? : A Study Of Freedom Of Religion, The Founding Fathers, The Supreme Court, And The Schools, Alice Sofis Evangelides

Master's Theses

The first part of my study concerns the meaning of "religious freedom" as revealed through the fundamental laws of the Constitutional period. In the course of my research, I have compiled and noted every mention of religion in the State Constitutions and Bills of Rights drafted between 1776 and 1791. I have read the Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation and the Northwest Ordinance; the Debates in the Constitutional Convention, the State Ratifying Conventions, and the First Congress, and extracted every significant mention of religion. I have not looked behind the words to the actual prac­ tice, but rather to …