“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.“
The basis for this preamble was many-fold, but most important was to make clear to the Crown of England that those who settled on our shores would never be subject to an absentee government; would never be subject to the whims of a government that did not recognize the power of its people; would never again endure the tyrannical reign of a monarch.
I find it quite interesting that George Washington, on his selection by the 2nd Continental Congress to be the country’s first president, had difficulty in determining how to act in situations where he was greeting dignitaries because he wanted to be formal, but not “kingly”. In addition, when he accepted the position of president, he presented his generals’ sword to the Congress as a sign of his acceptance and to prove that he would not serve in a dictatorial or tyrannical manner. Congress debated on what to call the head of our country. Was he to be like a “king” and be called “majesty”? No – after significant debate, the Congress decided he would simply be calle “Mr. President”. “Mr” signified that he was a man of integrity as all men who’d achieved some standing were presumed to be.
The phrase, “in Order to form a more perfect Union” was a specific allusion to the congregation of the colonies into states. They wanted to stand together against the British government, not act as separate individual state countries. It would be only through this union of purpose that the Colonies would be successful in their purpose of separating themselves from British authority.
Each Colony had its own way of keeping the peace. Some of the Colonies were organized on religious grounds (i.e., New England area being based purely on Puritan Church government rules), others on commercial grounds (i.e., the Virginia Company), and yet others based their governmental structure on British charter with a Royal Governor. At some point, the British Monarchy decided that in order to quell the masses, more Royal Governors needed to be put in place to control the people and the forms of government upon which many of the Colonies were structured were suddenly moot. But the people in the Colonies would not be put down quietly. Instead, they burned the houses of Royal Governors, burned their likenesses in effigy, and basically ran them out of town on a rail in order to have their governmental systems re-established. But in order to have a “more perfect union”, it would be necessary to have a common army for its defense. No individual Colony had sufficient resources to defend itself on its own from any invading force. Therefore, a standing army was necessary for the anticipated upcomining conflict. The 2nd Congressional Congress established a standing army, to be comprised of at least one garrison of British troops that they took over outside Philadelphia and of the common citizen of the Colonies who would, for a period of a few months, be conscripted to serve the Continental Army. George Washington was put at the head of the army.
The Democrat party points to the significance of the term, “promote the general Welfare” as being their charge to introduce all manner of social programs. When the Constitution was written, this sort of thing would never have entered the minds of those who wrote the Constitution. Instead, it refers to the general well-being of the nation and its reputation abroad. The preamble issues no specific authority to the Congress, nor does it give them any freedoms to establish what we have come to know as welfare programs. Serious constitutional scholars agree on this point.
The Framers wanted to secure liberty from tyrannical rule, unjust taxation and religious opression. In order to “secure the Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity” meant that in their lifetime, they wanted to be free of England for themselves and their descendents with England never again to issue any edict on how our Colonies would be run. This did not mean that we would not appreciate Britain for what it was – the ‘mother’ of our country’s founding, nor its powerful status in the world, but it was time for the monarchy to end its reign of tyranny and unjust taxation on a people who had already paid for all the services that England had given in its development. Our Founders and their kin said “enough” to taxation of cane sugar, tea, stamp tax, and shipping taxes on any vessel that was not British coming to our shores or any vessel carrying non-British goods. Our citizens had had enough! (And that’s where our Tea Party movement gets its strength.)
Next lesson will be on Article I of the Constitution.
politicalchick1
