22 James Madison, Notes of Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787, ed. Adrienne Koch (Athens O., 1966), 195.

23 Madison’s first draft of this clause embodied attitudes that prevailed in Virginia and Pennsylvania: “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.” It was strenuously opposed by New England congressmen (Sherman and Huntington of Conn., Gerry of Mass., Livermore of N.H.), who protested that it would be “extremely hurtful to the cause of religion” in “congregations to the Eastward.” The opposition was regional rather than ideological; it included both Federalists and Antifederalists, or as Elbridge Gerry preferred to call them, “rats and anti-rats.” The final wording was a regional compromise. Annals of Congress 1st Cong., 1st Session, cols. 434-35, 729-32 (8 June, 15 Aug. 1789).