Preamble to the United States Constitution
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- We the People redirects here. For the Flipsyde album, see We the People (album).
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 rationale behind the U.S. Constitution. It is generally believed to have been written by Gouverneur Morris.
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.
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[edit] Annotations
Technically speaking, the preamble of the U.S. Constitution does not assign any powers to any entity within the national government, 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. As Joseph Story said in his Commentaries, "Its true office is to expound the nature and extent and application of the powers actually conferred by the Constitution, and not substantively to create them."
[edit] Trivia
- The American Broadcasting Company television show, Schoolhouse Rock has 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
- ↑ 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".
- ↑ Jacobson v. Massachusetts, 197 U.S. 11, 22 (1905).
- ↑ 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).
- ↑ 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.
