What is the Preamble to the Constitution?

The Preamble is the introductory paragraph of the Constitution, stating who is establishing the document and what purposes it is meant to serve. Its full text reads: 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.

Gouverneur Morris of Pennsylvania, a member of the Committee of Style at the Constitutional Convention in 1787, drafted the final wording, polishing earlier drafts that had begun We the People of the States of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and so on. By substituting we the people of the United States, Morris signaled that the Constitution rested on a single national people, not just on the states acting collectively.

The Preamble does not grant powers and is not, by itself, a source of law. The Supreme Court confirmed in Jacobson v. Massachusetts in 1905 that the Preamble cannot be relied on to enlarge or restrict any power conferred by the rest of the Constitution. But it states the document's goals and is invoked constantly to interpret the rest of the text.

Each phrase carries weight. A more perfect Union meant improving on the inadequate union under the Articles of Confederation. Establish Justice committed the new government to fair courts and laws. Insure domestic Tranquility responded to Shays' Rebellion and other unrest of the 1780s by promising the federal government would help maintain order. Provide for the common defence committed the union to a coordinated military rather than thirteen independent state militias. Promote the general Welfare empowered the new government to act for shared prosperity. Secure the Blessings of Liberty linked the document explicitly to the cause of the Revolution.

The phrase to ourselves and our Posterity made clear that the Constitution was meant to bind future generations as well, justifying its enduring authority centuries later. Schoolchildren memorize the Preamble because it captures the entire purpose of the American constitutional project in fifty-two words.