The Constitution: Introduction and Preamble

I got a question regarding the law that fits in perfectly with today’s post. The question came from Brooke’s mom, Terry. She wanted to know how the United States Constitution defined freedom. The answer is…it doesn’t. In fact freedom is only found once in the whole Constitution and that is in the First Amendment to the Constitution where it says “…or abridging the freedom of speech…” No, the Constitution didn’t define what the freedom of speech was either. In fact the Constitution hardly defines anything. It states ideas and principles and provides a way to amend those ideas and principles if they don’t work. Most of the defining of the Constitution comes from the Supreme Court of the United States and to a lesser extent Congress and the President. Our society is setup on how important cases have shaped what the Constitution says.

My goal in writing this new series of blog posts will be to give you a general overview of each area and even specific text in some important sections. In the end I hope to give you some insight to a document that affects us all every day. I don’t want you to be someone who says I believe in the Constitution without knowing what it says. It would be just like all those people I talked with on the mission….

“Do you believe in the Bible sir?”
“Yes I do.”
“Have you ever read it?”
“No, but I know what it’s about.”

…It was shocking for them to find out what the Bible said at times. They had heard of what it says from a priest but never took the time to study it. My hope is that you won’t pull the same trick with the Constitution. Do you know what it says? Do you think it protects you from the horrors of the world? What about the horrors in your own community? What does this most important document say?

Today I wanted to introduce you this Constitutional blog series I am going to be doing and talk for a minute about the Preamble to the Constitution. If learned anything from grade school about the Constitution it was the Preamble, most likely you had to memorize it. It’s not that long…

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.

In general it gives an overview of what the purpose of the Constitution is. The people had a bad government right after the revolution created from the Articles of Confederation. They wanted a new government and wanted to establish “a more perfect union” to govern them. They list a bunch of qualities they wanted to see from their government like justice, tranquility, defense, welfare, etc… All pretty basic stuff.

One thing I want to talk about was the phrase “we the people of the United States.” Today we assume that everyone is a person of the United States, but what did those words mean when they were written? Who were citizens? Were slaves part of “the people?” Were women part of “the people?” Were poor, landless whites part of “the people?” In reality it was the rich, white, landowning elite that wanted this Constitution. I bet that if the Preamble were written today it might read something like…

“We the rich and landowning people of the United States, in order to make our lives better by having a stable government, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

I hope you will find this little journey to be a useful one. I will of course get other posts out for you guys to read. I will leave Brooke in charge of getting pictures of Sophie put on the blog, but you never know when I’ll put one up of her. Until next time!