Precious Freedom

“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.”

What does this paragraph really say? Let’s break it down by sentence or part thereof…

“We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union…”

The framers of the Constitution had emigrated to these lands from the kingdom of England/Great Britain. As such, they were subject to the whims of the then king, George. King George was not only king of the land, but head of the Church of England, which was highly oppressive to the Catholics of the land. This oppression stemmed from King Henry VIII, who, disliking the fact that the Pope of the Catholic Church would not grant a him a divorce from his wife. Henry wanted a divorce because his wife could not properly produce a male heir, let alone an heir that would survive more than a few brief days. In those days, everything was blamed on the woman (nothing’s really changed! LOL). Because of his inability to obtain a divorce authorization from the Pope, he had his wife tried and convicted, then beheaded. He then established the Church of England. If anyone dared challenge the King’s authority within the Church, they took their lives into their own hands. As a result of this oppression, the Framers of the Constitution wanted to make a more perfect society. In making a more perfect society, each person could worship God in whatever manner he/she so chose without being subject to a government’s interference;

establish justice

In England, each person was judged by the head of the Church – the King, through his Archbishop. There was no defense available for the common man. The Framers sought to establish a system of justice that provided a defense for the common person.

insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense,

To ensure domestic tranquility was to prevent outbreaks of war between the several states and to develop a system of dispute resolution. They also sought to provide for the common defense by raising an army and a navy that could protect the shores of this country.

promote the general welfare,

This clause of the preamble is often taken out of context. It does NOT mean that the government should provide welfare to any person, take care of the public so that they don’t have to work, or do anything other than what the Constitution’s Articles clearly define; rather, it means that the Government should do what it can to ensure that the general population is not devoid of assistance in times of disaster or attack. It means that the government should not show partiality when making laws that could affect one state more than another.

and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity

To secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity – to free our countrymen from oppression now and at any point in the future (ourselves and our posterity). It does not mean liberalism, far-left idealism.

do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America

The Framers needed to establish a Constitution in order to bind the various states together. Each state to that point had been subject both jointly and separately to the Kingdom of England as a protectorate just as Kenya was up until the Crown relinquished it and allowed it to be it’s own country. Without the Constitution – the “stick this in your mouth and chew on it a while” document, the States could not join together cohesively to fend off the British.

Your comments welcome and encouraged.