The Preamble

The Text

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.

What It Says

The Constitution is enacted by the people, not by the states as sovereign parties and not by a government granting rights downward. It states six purposes and then stops.

What It Protects Against

Government claiming its own authority. The opening three words locate the source of legitimacy outside the government being created, which means the government cannot be the thing that decides how much authority it has.

Protocol Media reading. Not sourced to a ratification-era document.

Problem Addressed

Under the Articles of Confederation the union was a compact among states. The Preamble’s shift to the people as the enacting party was noticed immediately and objected to during ratification.