The Preamble: Introduction

I have no idea whom to credit for this diagram since it's displayed without citation on dozens of webpages. Isn't it beautiful, though?


For those who prefer their sentences in a more linear form:

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.

For those who prefer their Preamble in comedy form:

For the Trekkies:

The Preamble is the most memorized sentence in the US Constitution. Weighing in at a hefty fifty-two words, it is purely expository. That is to say it explains, it even "sells" the rest of the document, but does not act. It neither grants authority nor recognizes rights.

Comments welcome and even appreciated (moderated).

Tomorrow: Preamble: Outside the Commas, Part I of II

Experts, scholars, and professionals dissect Constitutional conservatism into several more specific interpretive methodologies using terms like original intent, original meaning, plain meaning, strict construction, and formalism. While such distinctions are useful on a second, third, or fourth study, or in the course of a scholarly examination, they are largely ignored here because they aren't necessary to a basic familiarization with the text.

Logic insists that the Constitution was written to be understood as a self-contained document by ordinary citizens leading industrious private lives. We don't have to read the Declaration of Independence, the Federalist Papers, the Articles of Confederation, the Magna Carta, or the Holy Bible. We don't have to know the hearts and minds of the signatories or their constituents. We don't have to know which words are the result of compromise or who among the Founders were federalists or anti-federalists. While the study of such contextual elements results in deeper insight (and they will be mentioned from time to time), the focus here is to encourage and share the experience of a simple textual reading which can be the entirety or the beginning of an acquaintance with our Constitution.

Tomorrow: The Preamble.