The Constitution: The Preamble

 “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 of the Constitution is the part we all learn to quote in school.  It is the opening paragraph to Democracy as we know it in the United States.  The Preamble is only 54 words.  But what is the Preamble?  What is its significance?

The Preamble imparts three central themes.  The first is that the people are the owners of the power in the United States Democracy.  This is very important.  It is the basis for our right to vote, our right to question our leaders, our right to hold an opinion about the workings of the government.  The Preamble tells us immediately in the first paragraph that this is in the top three most important things in the constitution.

It introduces broadly how the constitution is “ordained and established.”  What does that mean? According to the Miriam Webster Dictionary, ordained means to establish or order by appointment, decree, or law.  From the same source, Establish means to institute (something, such as a law) permanently by enactment or agreement. The Preamble declared with the use of these two words that it was the law of the land. 

The final theme is the intent of the writers for the document it prefaces to be a lasting document.  Indeed, the Constitution has lasted 248 years. Keep in mind that the idea was a "living" document that could change and grow as the country changed.

At the time of the drafting of the Constitution, Preambles were common in legal documents. The idea was to sum up the purpose of the document to come.  In this case the founding Father’s wanted to state the most important reasons for writing the laws that followed, “, establish justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty.”  The previous governing document, The Articles of the Confederation, was insufficient to establish a unifying government with the proper checks and balances.  The Preamble would need to explain the necessity of the updated document.

There were six purposes for the Constitution according to the Preamble.  The first is to “Establish Justice”. In the context of the Preamble the founders believed that we should promote the general welfare of all citizens.  This was the piece of the Preamble that announced the intention for all people to be treated fairly and equally under the law.  Many amendments to the Constitution have been added to ensure that this purpose remains current. 

The next goal was to “insure domestic tranquility.” This was meant to ensure peace and order in the United States.  Today it is seen as the Preamble’s intent to protect our rights to peaceful protest and assembly.  It points to our right to question and protest our government, an important condition of our freedom. 

“Provide for defence” is a phrase meant to impart the need for the Federal government to coordinate efforts to defend the country against foreign attacks.  This meant the formation of a national army for defense against foreign powers.  But as seen by the diplomatic efforts of Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin, it also meant creating strong positive relationships with foreign powers.

“Promote the general Welfare” means the right of citizens to maintain peace, health, morality and safety.  This does not mean that the government gets to dictate what morality means for each of its citizens as individuals.  It means that the overall good of all or most of its citizens will be considered. 

“Blessings of Liberty” means the right of every citizen to the preservation of rights and freedoms.  Many have pointed to the use of the word “blessings” as proof that the Constitution had Christian origins.  This is not the case.  The meaning of blessings in this context is defined by the Miriam Webster Dictionary as a thing conducive to happiness or welfare.  Early Americans who had come to America in search of religious freedom believed that the right to religious freedom was so important that they added it to the very first amendment to the constitution. 

The Preamble, while not used on its own to create constitutional precedent, laid out the purpose of the most important document in the United States.  These six reasons for the framing of the Constitution form the basic validation for what Americans believe when they speak of democracy.  While the Preamble is often memorized it is rarely broken down and even less understood.  Its importance is sorely underappreciated. This opening paragraph of our freedom and democracy is a powerful one.

Congress.gov. (n.d.). Legal effect of the preamble | constitution annotated | congress.gov | library of Congress. Constitution Annotated Analysis and Interpretation of the U.S. Constitution. https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/pre-3/ALDE_00001235/

Merriam-Webster. (2024). America’s most trusted dictionary. Merriam-Webster. https://www.merriam-webster.com/