On Sunday, December 7, 2003, at 06:39 PM, Greg Stigers wrote:

> "fred White" wrote in part:
>> Remembering that the Bill of Rights was created on September 25, 1789
>> and ratified on December 15, 1791, it follows that the "free" in the
>> "free exercise thereof" phrase couldn't possibly have been referring
>> to
>> "tax free" since US taxation didn't begin until the middle of the 19th
>> century, around the time of the Civil War.
> So, the Bill of Rights does not refer to anything that did not exist
> at the
> time at which they were written?

Who said that???  Not I.

I simply noted that "free exercise thereof" was not in reference to
"freedom from taxes" but rather to not being prohibited just like the
phrase "freedom of speech" doesn't refer to speech being free of taxes.

FW

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