I’m continuing an exploration of the contours of our original charters of liberty, the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights.

My previous column, “Celebrating Our Bill of Rights: The Forgotten Preamble,” focused on the 1789 Preamble to the Bill of Rights, which explained that its purpose was to “to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers.”

As the first two Articles in the Bill of Rights were not ratified in 1791 along with the first ten Amendments, “Article the Third” of the original Bill of Rights became the First Amendment:

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