The Preamble |
I decided to just call this chapter "The Preamble" for the sake of popular understanding and brevity. In reality, there are two preambles in the Constitution. There's the Preamble to the Constitution, and there's the Preamble to the Bill of Rights (a document almost no one is familiar with). In time, we'll discuss both. But this chapter is simply about the Preamble to the Constitution.
When I was in grade school, one of my assignments was to memorize the Preamble
to the Constitution. Not a bad idea, really. But now I find it interesting that
instead of learning about the rest of the Constitution (the parts that actually
have an effect on people every day), like the Bill of Rights, they simply had
us memorize the Preamble. I have to wonder…what was the point? Because
after sitting through the entire class, no one was any more knowledgeable about
what the Constitution actually said.
Indeed, they didn't even teach what the Preamble meant. They only taught the
exact wording.
The Preamble is just a paragraph. It takes about fifteen seconds to read. We're
going to spend a couple of pages and try to understand what it means, something
the schools obviously would never dream of doing.
We the People of the United States…
We're off to a good start. As indicated by the Declaration of Independence, We the People are the only source of all political power in the United States. The Constitution acknowledges this by making it perfectly clear that the People are creating the Constitution (and hence, the People are creating the government).
There is a presumption of law that pre-dates the Magna Carta. This is that the
created can never rule the creator. When you create something, you are higher
than it. You rule it.
We the People created the government, so we are in charge of the government.
It is, however, interesting to note that we no longer have several united States,
but we have the United States. Instead of several independent states, we have
a single nation.
…in Order to form a more perfect Union…
We're trying to form a "more" perfect union. More perfect than what? More perfect than under the Articles of Confederation. You'll remember that the only reason we have the Constitution is because the Articles of Confederation had a major flaw in that the states were printing fiat money (see the chapter on the Federal Reserve).
…establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare…
Here, we're simply listing the reasons for our government. We need a strong judicial system. We definitely want domestic peace. We want to be able to defend our nation from a foreign foe. These are all great things. Promoting the general welfare is tougher because most people have a very hard time agreeing just what the general welfare actually is, and they often mistake it for specific welfare. To briefly summarize the difference: general welfare has to benefit everybody equally, while specific welfare may benefit only specific people.
…And secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity…
Indeed, Liberty is a blessing. And it is most important to secure it. Now, the Founding Fathers, when they wrote "and our Posterity" probably didn't mean all future generations. They probably just meant their children and grandchildren. Their own bloodlines, in other words. We should interpret it as meaning all future Americans. But it's unlikely that this is what they meant.
…do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
Congratulations! You've just made it through the Preamble to the Constitution. Admittedly, there is not a lot here to discuss. But we can certainly find some interesting principles buried behind the words.
The Founding Fathers listed specifically what they wanted this new government
to do. While the preamble is not a document that actually limits the government
in any way (we'll get to those clauses soon), it certainly explains their desires
for it.
This is particularly interesting because most of what the government does today
is directly contrary to those principles.