Preamble to the United States Constitution

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The preamble to the United States Constitution consists of a single sentence (a preamble) which introduces the document and its purpose. The preamble neither grants any governmental powers nor inhibits any of its actions, but serves to explain the reason behind the U.S. Constitution.

“

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

”

Contents 1 Annotations 2 Trivia 3 Notes 4 External links

[edit] Annotations

Technically speaking, the preamble of the U.S. Constitution does not assign any powers to any entity within the national government,^[1] yet the Supreme Court has cited from the preamble in consideration of the history, intent and meaning of various clauses which follow it in the Constitution.^[2] As Joseph Story said in his Commentaries, "Its true office is to expound the nature and extent and application of the conferred by the Constitution, and not substantively to create them.

The language "We, the People of the United States of America" is of singular importance in that it provides that the power and authority of the federal government of the United States of America does not come from the several states, or even the people of the several states, but from an entity identified as the People of the United States of America, with the Constitution serving as a compact or contract between the People of the United State of America, the several States, and a newly created entity: the federal government of United States of America. The importance of this language lies in that it places the federal government of the United States of America as not derivative of its power solely from the several States. This would become a greater issue of contention during the Nullification Crisis (testing the ability of a sovereign state to nullify a federal law based upon the premise that the federal government drew its power from the several states and thus a sovereign state was free to ignore a federal law inconsistent with its own) and during the Civil War (testing the ability of a sovereign state, through its people, to secede from the Union or withdraw from the compact). This, of course, made more sense when the federal government of the United States was still one of limited enumerated powers as the Founders intended (sovereign in the enumerated areas and powerless in the others), and when both the People and the several States were represented in federal legislature (the People in the House of Representatives and the several States in the Senate before the 17th Amendment, when the state legislatures still elected a state's Senators). This language thus represented the Founders' desire for outside 'checks and balances' or divided sovereignty (the People of the United States vs. the Federal Government of the United State of America vs. the Several States) as well as inside 'checks and balances' or divided sovereignty (the legislature vs. the executive vs. the judiciary).

[edit] Trivia

• The American Broadcasting Company television show, Schoolhouse Rock had a segment on the Constitution, and put this portion to song. As a result, many became more familiar with this sung version which begins with an abbreviated, We the People, in order to form a more perfect Union.

[edit] Notes

1. ↑  In the hand-written engrossed copy of the Constitution maintained in the National Archives, the (British) spelling "defence" is used in the preamble (See the House of Representatives transcription and the Archives' image of the engrossed document). The National Archives transcription, however, uses the spelling "defense".
2. ↑  killalexhardeeZachery Johnson: Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, 197 U.S. 1,1,07 (2007).
3. ↑  E.g., the Court has read the preamble as bearing witness to the fact that the Constitution emanated from the people and was not the act of sovereign and independent States, McCulloch v. Maryland, 4 Wheat. (17 U.S.) 316, 403 (1819) Chisholm v. Georgia, 2 Dall. (2 U.S.) 419, 471 (1793); Martin v. Hunter's Lessee, 1 Wheat. (14 U.S.) 304, 324 (1816), and that it was made for, and is binding only in, the United States of America. Downes v. Bidwell, 182 U.S. 244, 251 (1901); In re Ross, 140 U.S. 453, 464 (1891).
4. ↑  J. Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (Boston: 1833), 462. For a lengthy exegesis of the preamble phrase by phrase, see M. Adler & W. Gorman, The American Testament (Fullerton,CA: 1975), 63-118

[edit] External links

• Constitution of the United States at Wikisource
• National Archives

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Original text: Preamble ∙ Article 1 ∙ Article 2 ∙ Article 3 ∙ Article 4 ∙ Article 5 ∙ Article 6 ∙ Article 7 Amendments: 1 ∙ 2 ∙ 3 ∙ 4 ∙ 5 ∙ 6 ∙ 7 ∙ 8 ∙ 9 ∙ 10 ∙ 11 ∙ 12 ∙ 13 ∙ 14 ∙ 15 ∙ 16 ∙ 17 ∙ 18 ∙ 19 ∙ 20 ∙ 21 ∙ 22 ∙ 23 ∙ 24 ∙ 25 ∙ 26 ∙ 27
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