“Discuss the principles that set out in the preamble of the United States of America”
1. INTRODUCTION:
The preamble is a general outline of the principles that are laid down in the Constitution. It sums up the intentions that the delegates had for the Constitution they were drafting and the government they were forming. Since its initiative was for introduction purposes only, the preamble does not say anything about the government in terms of powers or limitations.
Sometimes when people ask what something says, they really mean “What does it mean?” The preamble says that the United States would as good as possible, promote justice and peace, defend the country, help its citizens when they had a need, and provide freedom for all people and all future generations.
Understanding the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution is important because it sets out the purposes or functions of government as envisioned by the framers. The Preamble to the United States Constitution not only introduces the document; it encapsulates and reflects the various sources of, and influences upon, our constitutional tradition.
Through discussion of the research, I will delve more deeply into the meaning of the Preamble, focusing particularly on who “We the People” are and what should be done by government and by citizens in order to make a “more perfect union” a reality.
2. WHAT IS A PREAMBLE
2.1 Preamble: A clause at the beginning of a constitution or statute explanatory of the reasons for its enactment and the objects sought to be accomplished. Generally, a preamble is a declaration by the legislature of the reasons for the passage of the statute and is helpful in the interpretation of any ambiguities within the statute to which it is prefixed. It has been held however to not be an essential part of act, and neither enlarges nor confers powers.
2.2 Preamble: A preface, an introduction or explanation of what is to follow: that clause at the head of acts of congress or other legislatures which explains the reasons why the act is made. Preambles are also frequently put in contracts to, explain the motives of the contracting parties,
A preamble is said to be the key of a statute, to open the minds of the makers as to the mischief’s which are to be remedied, and the objects which are to be accomplished by the provisions of the statutes. It cannot amount, by implication, to enlarge what is expressly given. [Story on Const. B 3, c. 6. How far a preamble is to be considered evidence of the facts it recites, see 4 M. & S. 532; 1 Phil. Ev. 239; 2 Russ. on Cr. 720; and see, generally, Ersk. L. of Scotl. 1, 1, 18; Toull. liv. 3, n. 318; 2 Supp. to Ves. jr. 239; 4 L. R. 55; Barr. on the Stat. 353, 370.
2.3 Preamble Politics:. . . A preamble does not make law – but rather it introduces the laws that follow. Political agendas and fear campaigns over the last few years have managed to cloud the issues sufficiently for the national interest to be deftly sidestepped.
The constitutional preamble is the opening text that comes before the enacting clause, the introductory covering clauses and the substantive sections of the Commonwealth Constitution itself. We’ve had the current preamble since the Constitution was enacted 100 years ago, but for more than a decade now, there has been talk about getting ourselves a brand new preamble, new words for a new era. There are lots of obvious reasons why a new preamble seems like a good idea: the original preamble has historical omissions (e.g. failure to mention indigenous people and failure to mention Western Australia), it lacks soul, and it fails miserably to embody any aspiration national text.
3. PURPOSE AND EFFECT OF THE PREAMBLE
The preamble states the fundamental purposes, principles, and goals of the government established by the Constitution. Its purpose is to generally define the reasons behind the Constitution, establish what justifies a government, and explain how its citizens have come to create one.
Although the preamble is not a source of power for any department of the Federal Government, the Supreme Court has often referred to it as evidence of the origin, scope, and purpose of the Constitution. ‘‘its true office,’‘ wrote Joseph Story in his COMMENTARIES, ”is to expound the nature and extent and application of the powers actually conferred by the Constitution, and not substantively to create them. For example, the preamble declares one object to be, ‘to provide for the common defense.’ No one can doubt that this does not enlarge the powers of Congress to pass any measures which they deem useful for the common defense. But suppose the terms of a given power admit of two constructions, the one more restrictive, the other more liberal, and each of them is consistent with the words, but is, and ought to be, governed by the intent of the power; if one could promote and the other defeat the common defense, ought not the former, upon the soundest principles of interpretation, to be adopted?”
Preambles have no power, no authority no force; they are not an essential part of the law or constitution, in short aren’t law. Nor is the Declaration of Independence as a whole a preamble to the Constitution as some have claimed.
4. PREAMBLE IN USA
The Preamble to the United States Constitution is a brief introductory statement of the Constitution’s fundamental purposes and guiding principles. It states in general terms, and courts have referred to it as reliable evidence of, the Founding Fathers’ intentions regarding the Constitution’s meaning and what they hoped the Constitution would achieve.
4.1 WHAT IT SAYS
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.
4.2 COMPARISON: THE PREAMBLE TO THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress declared America’s independence from Great Britain and converted the thirteen colonies into the United States of America. The Declaration of Independence’s justification for that break later influenced the language of the preamble to the Constitution.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness—That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,—That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
5. FIRST DRAFT OF THE PREAMBLE: TO THE CONSTITUTION
At the Constitutional Convention on August 6, 1787, the Committee of Detail submitted this first draft of the preamble, which began with a list of the states, as did the Articles of Confederation.
We, the people of the states of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North-Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, do ordain, declare, and establish, the following Constitution for the Government of Ourselves and our Posterity.
However, ratification of the Constitution did not require the unanimous consent of all thirteen states, and future states were expected to join the Union, so the convention dropped the names of the first states. This revision strengthened the idea that “the people” rather than “the states” created the government. Governor Morris, a delegate from Pennsylvania, rewrote the preamble, crafting the more eloquent explanation that the convention finally adopted.
6. PREAMBLE OF USA: MEANING AND APPLICATION
The preamble expresses the purpose of the U.S. Constitution. The federal government gains its power from the people rather than from the states. The government exists to maintain peace at home, provide national defense, promote the well-being of the people, and protect their liberties. Importantly, the Supreme Court has held, in Jacobson v. Massachusetts(1905), that the preamble itself is not a source of federal power or individual rights. Rather, all rights and powers are set out in the articles and amendments that follow.
The Preamble serves solely as an introduction, and does not assign powers to the federal government, nor does it provide specific limitations on government action. Due to the Preamble’s limited nature, no court has ever used it as a decisive factor in case adjudication, except as regards frivolous litigation.
The Preamble to the Constitution was added at the last minute by the Constitutional Convention, roundly criticized upon its announcement, and even today lacks any legal standing. So what does it mean, and why does it matter?
6.1 We the People of the United States: No longer the people of another country, king or territory but one people. No longer the people whose allegiance if for their sovereign state but allegiance to state and federal union.
“We the People” was a powerful and even revolutionary way to announce the Americans’ new form of government, for encapsulated in these three opening words was the argument for a new regime that is in keeping with the principles advanced in the Declaration of 1776, and defended in the War for Independence.
6.2 To form a more perfect union: The phrase “to form a more perfect Union” has been construed as referring to the shift to the Constitution from the Articles Confederation. Whereas the previous compact of the United States, the Articles of Confederation, had been a “firm league of friendship” joined by states, the new Constitution was formed by the people as a whole. The national government was sovereign, not the states. To Anti-Federalists, the Constitution went awry from the outset, for in its first phrase, they held, it announced a form of government that would eliminate the power of the states and thereby destroy the liberties of the people. Nothing could be further from the truth, Federalists responded correctly, for unless the nation wished to continue in abject weakness, it needed to empower the national government to do what the states could not, thus ensuring that the liberties of the people would be secure.
Owing to the fluid style and incisive intellect of Pennsylvanian Gouverneur Morris, who despite being the most loquacious of the delegates to the Constitutional Convention was also among the most profound, the Preamble was his parting gift to the nation, drafted as he did the final edits to the document as a whole. Remedying the weaknesses of the Articles, the new Constitution would accomplish all of ends stated in its Preamble. Morris gave those ends concise expression, and despite his clarity, they were misunderstood in his day, and often, for very different reasons, continue to be misunderstood in ours. Take, for example, two of the six ends, or goals, adduced in the Preamble: the first, which is “to form a more perfect Union,” and the fifth, to “promote the general Welfare.”
To some Anti-Federalists, the phrase “to form a more perfect Union” was taken to entail a process of perfection whereby the states would be gradually crowded out, and more and more power would be given to the central government, so that when the evolution was complete all three main functions—legislative, executive, and judicial—would be held by one consolidated power. Such would not only be a violation of the Constitution’s set-up, it would also trammel everything the Declaration had stated against the King’s own arrogation of authority. Publics and many other Federalists had a ready response for this erroneous reading.
There are many who today take the phrase, “to form a more perfect Union,” to mean that the steady march of Progress must carry us closer and closer to perfection. Intent on leaving behind old, outdated ideas, and replacing them with a “new foundation” for our government, contemporary Progressives take the Preamble out of context in supposing it an endorsement of their agenda.
“To form a more perfect Union” meant nothing about the future, and everything about the past. It meant, simply, that the Constitution would be an improvement upon the Articles of Confederation, which left much to be desired in its anemic, nearly non-existent central government. The Constitution is the architecture of our equality and liberty not because of some supposed Progressivism in the Preamble, but rather because of its foundation in principles that are enduring.
6.3 Establish Justice: Limited government for the Founders did not mean weak government. On the contrary, government had to be strong to secure the rights of the people. This is obvious when three other ends not examined in detail here are considered. The federal union would keep states accountable for keeping liberty and freedom for all people
6.4 Provide for the common defense: The federal union would keep the sovereignty of the nation safe
6.5 Promote the general Welfare: The people’s constitutional rights would be a priority.<href=”#_ftn2″ name=”_ftnref2″ title=””>[2] While some Anti-Federalists wondered whether the fifth end, or purpose, of the Preamble, to “promote the general Welfare,” would, along with its recapitulation later in the first article of the Constitution, create too broad a grant of power, the overwhelming consensus at the time of the Founding was that the word “general” precluded the kind of projects that today we know as “pork.” Today the Preamble’s “general Welfare” reference is occasionally cited in error as a constitutional grant of authority. The Preamble can confer no such legal boon, and even if it could, the phrase “general Welfare” would allow very little, if any, of the legislative activity that the frequent misreading of the first clause of the
6.6 Constitution’s Article I, Section 8, has permitted. In other words, to “promote the general Welfare” must be understood within the limited government context in which it was written.
6.7 Secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity: The freedom and liberty of the people would not be infringed upon by state or federal governments
6.8 Do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America: This constitution is a bond between states and the federal; people and federal; people and states
The Constitution’s Preamble states six ends of government, the sixth of which is, to “secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.” It is this phrase, especially, that might remind us of the president of the Constitutional Convention, and the “Father of our Country,” George Washington, whose birthday should remind how much AMERICAN People owe to him for the “blessings of liberty” that so richly enjoy today [David J. Bobb, Ph.D. is director of the Hillsdale College Allan P. Kirby, Jr. Center for Constitutional Studies and Citizenship, in Washington, D.C].
7. CONCLUSION
The Preamble of the United States Constitution says that the constitution is being established for a republican form of government. The preamble is an introduction to the United States Constitutions. The preamble is a general outline of the principles that are laid down in the Constitution. It sums up the intentions that the delegates had for the Constitution they were drafting and the government they were forming. Since its purpose was for introduction purposes only, the preamble does not say anything about the government in terms of powers or limitations.
Sometimes when people ask what something says, they really mean “What does it mean?” The preamble says that the United States would as good as possible, promote justice and peace, defend the country, help its citizens when they had a need, and provide freedom for all people and all future generations.
As the name “Preamble” says, it “walks before,” or introduces, the Constitution. As such, it identifies the parties: in this case “We the People” and “the United States,” and it establishes the nexus or connection that binds them together. In our point of view, the preamble is also “explanatory of the reasons for its enactment” the pronoun referring to the Constitution) and states “the objects … to be accomplished.” In that sense, it is indeed analogous to a mission statement as someone has already said.
It is true that it does not grant any powers; Black’s again, this time quoting a particular case: it “neither enlarges nor confers powers.”
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Armitage, David. The Declaration Of Independence: A Global History. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2007. ISBN 978-0-674-02282-9
2. Boyd, Julian P., Ed. The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 1. Princeton University Press, 1950
3. Derek H. Davis. Oxford University Press, (2000) pp 112-113.
4. Dumbauld, Edward. The Declaration of Independence And What It Means Today. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1950.
5. Jacobson v. Massachusetts, <href=”#22″>197 U.S. 11, 22 (1905).
6. 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 (New York: 1975), 63-118
7. Maier, American Scripture, 37; Jensen, Founding, 684. For the full text of the May 15 preamble see the Journals of the Continental Congress.
8. Religion and the Continental Congress, 1774-1789, Contributions to original Intent.
9. Smith, Jean Edward (1996). John Marshall: Definer Of A Nation. New York: Henry Holt & Company. ISBN 080501389X
10. United States Department of State, “<href=”#v=onepage&q&f=false”>The Declaration of Independence, 1776, 1911.
11. http://edsitement.neh.gov/lesson-plan/preamble-constitution-how-do-you-make-more-perfect-union
12. http://answers.yourdictionary.com/answers/history/us-history/what-does-preamble-say.html
13. http://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/197/11/case.html
15. http://www.archives.gov/national_archives_experience/declaration_history.html
16. http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/preamble
17. http://www.mcwdn.org/dof/conpreamble.html
18. http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/preamble/
<href=”#_ftnref1″ name=”_ftn1″ title=””>See United States v. Cruikshank, 92 U.S. 542, 549–50 (1876) (“The separate governments of the separate States, bound together by the articles of confederation alone, were not sufficient for the promotion of the general welfare of the people in respect to foreign nations, or for their complete protection as citizens of the confederated States. For this reason, the people of the United States . . . ordained and established the government of the United States, and defined its powers by a constitution, which they adopted as its fundamental law . . . .” (emphasis added)); Texas v. White, 74 U.S. (7 Wall.) 700, 724–25 (1869) (“[The Union, which had existed since colonial times,] received definite form, and character, and sanction from the Articles of Confederation. By these the Union was solemnly declared to ‘be perpetual.’ And when these Articles were found to be inadequate to the exigencies of the country, the Constitution was ordained ‘to form a more perfect Union.'”), overruled on other grounds by Morgan v. United States, 113 U.S. 476 (1885); Martin v. Hunter’s Lessee, 14 U.S. (1 Wheat.) 304, 332 (1816) (“The constitution was for a new government, organized with new substantive powers, and not a mere supplementary charter to a government already existing.”).
<href=”#_ftnref2″ name=”_ftn2″ title=””>[2]Id. at 574 (emphasis added).