The Context of the Preamble of the U.S. Constitution

by
Stephen Corrigan
All copyrights reserved

"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."

In 1776, The United States became a new republic consisting of 13 free States. The People who resided in those 13 free States wanted a stronger Union between the States while keeping the right of each State to govern itself under a republican form of government. They wanted to have the same rights of justice when they traveled to other States as they had in their own State. The People of each State wanted a strong national defense for the Union while maintaining a strong militia in each State. They wanted the States to be in harmony with one another so that all contracts would be honored outside their own state. They did not desire a national constitution for the People but rather a federal constitution for the States. The People of the 13 free States wrote the Preamble for the States only. The United States was to be the only nation in the world where the highest level of government would not have the authority to specify the conduct of its citizens within the States. The Preamble of the U.S. Constitution was written for the following reasons:
  1. To form a more perfect Union (between the States, not the People)
  2. To establish Justice (among the States, not the People)
  3. To Insure domestic Tranquility (among the States, not the People)
  4. To Provide for the common defense (for the States, not the People)
  5. To Promote the general Welfare (of the States, not the People)
  6. To Secure the Blessings of Liberty for themselves. (Their liberty was to be secure because they, the People of the States, gave no power to Congress to make any laws for individuals residing inside the free States pertaining to the 5 areas listed).

To construe any of the first five areas as giving Congress the power to make laws for individuals would have destroyed the entire concept of the Blessings of individual Liberty so cherished by our founders. If they, the People, had wanted Congress to be in charge of their Blessings, they would have surely made a list of those Blessings that they wanted protected inside the Constitution.
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