Question

how is the 1st amendment a combination of english law, enlightenment ideas, the experiences of american colonists, early experiences of self - government and the national debate over the ratification of the constitution.

Answer 1

In general, seventeenth-century aristocratic and conservative English
ideas played a role in the early development of American constitutional
law at least equal to democratic and liberal ideas that were preached in
the eighteenth century by the French philosophes-as well as by English
and other European reformers-and that ultimately came to prevail in
French constitutional law. This was true of most of the early state constitutions39
and especially of the United States Constitution of 1787. The
bicameral legislature is one example. The members of the U.S. Senate,
elected for long terms and, at first, by the state legislatures, were supposed,
like the members of the House of Commons, to represent the
nation as a whole, while the members of the House of Representatives,
like the members of the French Estates General, were supposed to represent
their particular constituencies. The Supreme Court is another
example. It was, indeed, a kind of House of Lords-which is also, in
fact, the supreme judicial body in England. Likewise, the president, who
like the senators was at first elected indirectly, was, in foreign policy at
least, a kind of monarch, albeit not a hereditary monarch.