Although the Preamble is the most memorized part of the Constitution, it has no legal standing in government, however it does state the government’s authority and outline the government’s duties.“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 Preamble seems to be an afterthought, as it was written towards the end of the Constitutional Convention. There were several drafts with the final being written by Gouverneur Morris. However, the Preamble’s words were perfectly developed as each clause completely explains the founders’ beliefs. Take just the first three words, they completely challenge centuries of political thought.From the development of the nation-state in Europe, kings had ruled by Divine Right. In other words, God chose who should be king, so to go against the king was not just treason but heresy. With such authority the king was not subject to the will of the people – only God. Yet by starting out this document with “We the People,” suddenly the founders are claiming that government governs by the consent of the people and hence are accountable by and to the people. This was a massive revolutionary change.The next four words, “of the United States,” established the name of the country as the United States. The Founding Fathers could have gone with a different name here, but they were not quite ready to let state sovereignty go, not completely. We were not America, but a collection of states. We would not see ourselves as Americans until after the Civil War. Before that, we were identified by the states in which we lived (E.g. Virginians or New Yorkers.) When describing the nation contemporaries would use the plural form, like the United States are, as opposed to us today who use the singular, the United States is. That little difference is huge.The next clause is just as telling, “to form a more perfect Union.” The Constitution did not create the union; it only made it better. This idea was used later by President Abraham Lincoln to justify the Civil War. The South’s argument for secession was basically that they signed up for the U.S. when they ratified the Constitution. If they opted ...
