what did the founding fathers mean about freedom of speech?

Answer 1

What they meant by that was that, in England, the king and various royal landowners had the right to kill or punish anyone as they chose for saying anything that was personally offensive to them, such as, "the king looks stupid in his purple robe," regardless of whether it was truly illegal, such as legitimate treason. In other words, the laws in England were arbitrary. The Constitution was written to establish laws which clearly delineated what was truly illegal and the methods by which one could be tried regarding violating these laws. Thus, even though it might hurt someone's feelings for saying that they look stupid in their purple robe, the Constitution protects us from being punished for saying it.

Answer 2

At the time the U.S. Constitution was written, there was the fear of establishing a government that could become too powerful and controlling over its people. Some English kings had had a reputation of jailing and/or executing those who spoke out against policies of the Crown. To protect Americans from such oppression, the Founding Fathers added Amendments 1 -10 (the Bill of Rights) to the Constitution, with the 1st Amendment giving freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, the right to assemble peacably, and the right to present grievances to the government (without the fear of retribution).

ps: Alyssa L. does not seem to understand federalism, which refers to the dual system of government that we use in the U.S. (meaning that we have the government of the entire U.S., while at the same time, we also have the governments of the individual states).

Answer 3

"Freedom of speech, which is limited to the freedom to say whatever the majority agrees with, is not real freedom of speech."

The founding fathers forgot it in the first draft of the consitution, and had to add it as an ammendment. "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

Freedom of speech is the concept of the inherent human right to voice one's opinion publicly without fear of censorship or punishment. The right is enshrined in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and is granted formal recognition by the laws of most nations. Nonetheless the degree to which the right is upheld in practice varies greatly from one nation to another(and it may also vary within a nation). In many nations, particularly those with relatively authoritarian forms of government, overt government censorship is enforced. Censorship has also been claimed to occur in other forms (see propaganda model) and there are different approaches to issues such as hate speech, obscenity, and defamation laws even in countries seen as liberal democracies.

Answer 4

First of all, you should do your own homework. However, as this is so open to interpretation, I will give you mine. I think the founding fathers meant that the people should be free to speak their minds about the government and about their beliefs/values.

Answer 5

I suspect that they realized that the creation of noise, by human vocal chords, is not sufficient reason for forceful action, and that forceful action is more correctly taken only in response to other forceful action (this all being, of course, in an ideal world...)

Answer 6

exactly what it says but there is such a thing as federalism which keeps u from saying offensive words in public...if thats what you mean