The Constitution of The United States Of America
I will be exploring the constitution starting with the preamble and moving to the end. Today a simple introduction.
The U.S. Constitution is the central instrument of government and the “supreme law of the land”. It is the oldest written Constitution in the world that is in force. It was written in 1787 in Philadelphia by the Continental Congress of the new American republic and was officially adopted in 1789. The objective of the writers was to outline the structure of a new, strong central government after the years of weakness and chaos resulting from the preexisting “Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union” which loosely bound the colonies together since 1778.
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During the day it is on display in the rotunda at the National Archives, during the night it is lowered into a nuclear bomb proof bunker for safe keeping. It sets forth the structure of our federal government, which is divided into three branches. It also sets the relationship between the federal government and the states, protects against the abuse of power, and enshrines the rights of minorities.
As great a document as it is, it is still flawed in many ways. Even some founding fathers (among them Jefferson and Paine) felt it betrayed the spirit of freedom of the American Revolution. Don’t forget that the original constitution did not address the blight of slavery.
Only after the civil war was the document amended to abolish slavery. The constitution is a living breathing document able to change and grow as our nation changes and grows.
Lets tackle the Preamble.
The Preamble.
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, 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.
Great stuff, but the founders apparently didn’t know about run on sentences. Basically the preamble is an intro paragraph for the constitution. It lays out in plain language what the document was written for, and what the people writing it hope to achieve with it.
The first three words, “We the People” clearly lay out the fact that this is a nation ruled by the people, and not a king, dictator, judges, members of congress, or even the president. The people run this joint, and that’s the way it was meant to be. It also implies a certain responsibility of every citizen to understand that we the PEOPLE are in charge of this whole thing. All of us together run this country.
It should be noted that the Supreme Court has ruled that the preamble is not a source of federal power or individual rights, but rather an introduction to a document that contains language for these rights and liberties elsewhere in the text.
Up Next “Article I, Section 1”