Outside the Commas, Part II of II

. . .do ordain and establish this Constitution
for the United States of America.

Yesterday we saw that "We the People of the United States" was an unauthorized entity. Today we focus on what the Preamble says they did.

The word "ordain" is sometimes thought to have injected religious meaning into the Constitution. It almost certainly did not. The Framers were educated men assembled for a serious cause. Their language was formal. They adopted this word, derived from Latin "ordinare" to mean roughly to put in permanent order or arrangement by decree.

"The United States of America" was the name formally given to the Confederation in Article I of the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union. The Preamble claimed that this new Constitution was being Established "for" a political entity which was already in existence--one which forbade its establishment.

We have to skip ahead briefly to see the difference between the subject of the sentence, "We the People of the United States," at the beginning of the Preamble, and the object, "The United States of America" at the end.

Article VII "The Ratification of the Conventions of nine States, shall be sufficient for the Establishment of this Constitution between the States so ratifying the Same.

So the "we" was actually the People of some undetermined subset of at least nine of the thirteen states, who didn't exist as a legitimate entity and who didn't authorize the Convention to draft a new Constitution in their behalf, and who are yet illegally seceding from the Confederation and usurping its name!

It's no wonder a rock-solid case for ratification was crucial. We'll find those arguments between the commas.

Comments? Please?

Tomorrow: Between the Commas, Part I of II
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