"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.";

Who does this refer to?

The preamble makes several personal references. First is ";We the People";. The founding fathers were appointed representatives from their home states. They understood that their role was to represent the people of their state to the best of their ability and to speak on their behalf. This led to just as much contention and fighting as you might see in congress today but, there was much less ego involved.

In 1776 many of these men were present for the writing of the Declaration of Independence. The constitution was being written 10 years later after a long and bloody war. These men along with their friends, family and neighbors had faced tremendous hardship to bring this country to freedom and they took their duty as representatives very seriously.

Next comes the phrase, ";of the United States."; This is important because the Constitution and the government it establishes were not made for individual people. The name of our country comes from two words. States refers to the independent and sovereign states of the nation. Each has it's own government and constitution and system of doing things. For the most part they are democracies. The citizens not only vote on their leaders but also have a direct vote in the passage of laws to some extent. For some, like California, The citizens themselves can propose and pass laws through the ballot initiative. In others the citizens only vote on major state issues, taxes and changes to the state constitution.

The Federal government established by the constitution represents the 50 states and not the individual. The amendments (which I will cover elsewhere) where primarily established to protect individual rights but the body of the constitution establishes the government that unites these sovereign states (13 then and 50 now) into a single nation that acts together for mutual protection and prosperity.

Why have a constitution?

When the Constitution was written there was no country in the world with the divisions of government and the system of checks and balances that our founding fathers envisioned. Most countries were governed by a monarchy under ";the divine right of kings";, which basically meant that the king was established by God and could do what he wanted. The Magna Carta had been an attempt to reduce the threat that caused and other documents, through the ages had sought to control the kings’ power. The system of democracy practiced in ancient Greece was, obviously, a great influence on our founders though the Greek system had weaknesses they weren't many.

The states sought to fulfill several goals. Domestic tranquility would be established by creating a Union of states so that each state would have a stake in the interests of the others. The purpose here was to avoid sacrificing the freedom they just fought for by fighting among themselves. The common defense was part of this. Larger states might easily raise an effective army but the smaller populations could be easily overrun. Creating a union government with the power to raise an army that would defend all the states gave better protection for all. Invaders attacking one state would find it defended by representatives of all the states.

Providing for the General welfare and ensuring the blessings of liberty was a matter of making each state interdependent with the others. We formed a nation that would be like family. Each state looking after the others like family members. Establishing a uniform system of justice that would apply to all citizens of the individual states even when they were in another state. Eliminating restrictions on trade among the states so that everyone could benefit from the resources of the country was very important. Agricultural states had plenty of food but little in the way of manufactured goods. Industrial states could produce what they wanted but needed food for the workman and raw materials to feed into the machines. Importing from foreign countries came with shipping expenses and rules of international commerce. Creating a union of states allowed this trade to become much easier.

What about ensuring liberty and forming a perfect union?

Cooperation between sovereign states is a matter of treaty in most cases. Individual governments send representatives to establish an agreement and set rules for its implementation. Each state maintains total independence and continues to look after it's own interests. The treaty will often be solid for many years until a problem comes along and one side or the other doesn't find it in their best interest to follow through. This doesn't always end the treaty but it makes treaties rather week.

A constitutional government allowed the states to create a stronger bond by uniting under a single government for mutual advantage. It also allowed them to establish a set of rules of liberty that could not be overrun by oppressive governance. This was a point of contention for quite some time. Many founder thought that no one would even consider infringing people liberties after fighting so hard to win them. Others felt that not putting them in writing would result in government forgetting its limits. Still others assumed that if you wrote things down, later government officials would decide anything not written down was fair game (this last group proved to be the most correct). It’s for this reason that the bill of writes didn’t come until 1791, 4 years later.

Conclusion

The preamble to the constitution effectively lays out the purpose of the constitution and the government it established. It spells out, in detail, who it represents, what it should do, and why it was established. someone once said it perfectly. “The Declaration or Independence was the promise; the Constitution was the fulfillment.

The next Stuy in this series will investigate the articles of the Constitution:

http://hubpages.com/hub/Who-Will-Write-Our-Laws

Cooperation between sovereign states is a matter of treaty in most cases. Individual governments send representatives to establish an agreement and set rules for its implementation. Each state maintains total independence and continues to look after it's own interests. The treaty will often be solid for many years until a problem comes along and one side or the other doesn't find it in their best interest to follow through. This doesn't always end the treaty but it makes treaties rather week.

A constitutional government allowed the states to create a stronger bond by uniting under a single government for mutual advantage. It also allowed them to establish a set of rules of liberty that could not be overrun by oppressive governance. This was a point of contention for quite some time. Many founder thought that no one would even consider infringing people liberties after fighting so hard to win them. Others felt that not putting them in writing would result in government forgetting its limits. Still others assumed that if you wrote things down, later government officials would decide anything not written down was fair game (this last group proved to be the most correct). It’s for this reason that the bill of writes didn’t come until 1791, 4 years later.

Conclusion

The preamble to the constitution effectively lays out the purpose of the constitution and the government it established. It spells out, in detail, who it represents, what it should do, and why it was established. someone once said it perfectly. “The Declaration or Independence was the promise; the Constitution was the fulfillment.

The next Stuy in this series will investigate the articles of the Constitution:

http://hubpages.com/hub/Who-Will-Write-Our-Laws