951; Minnesota, February 27,
1951; North Carolina, February 28, 1951; South Carolina, March 13, 1951;
Maryland, March 14, 1951; Florida, April 16, 1951; and Alabama, May 4,
1951.

THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA WITH ANNOTATIONS

PREAMBLE

The Preamble: Page
Purpose and effect 59
"The people of the United States" 59

THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA WITH ANNOTATIONS

The Preamble

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.

Purpose and Effect of the Preamble

Although the preamble is not a source of power for any department of the
Federal Government,[1] the Supreme Court has often referred to it as
evidence of the origin, scope, and purpose of the Constitution. "Its
true office" wrote Joseph Story in his Commentaries, "is to expound the
nature and extent and application of the powers actually conferred by
the Constitution, and not substantively to create them. For example, the
preamble declares one object to be, 'to provide for the common defense.'
No one can doubt that this does not enlarge the powers of Congress to
pass any measures which they deem useful for the common defence. But
suppose the terms of a given power admit of two constructions, the one
more restrictive, the other more liberal, and each of them is consistent
with the words, but is, and ought to be, governed by the intent of the
power; if one could promote and the other defeat the common defence,
ought not the former, upon the soundest principles of interpretation, to
be adopted?"[2] Moreover, the preamble bears witness to the fact that
the Constitution emanated from the people, and was not the act of
sovereign and independent States,[3] and that it was made for, and is
binding only in, the United States of America.[4] In the Dred Scott
case,[5] Chief Justice Taney declared that: "The words 'people of the
United States' and 'citizens' are synonymous terms, and mean the same
thing. They both describe the political body who, according to our
republican institutions, form the sovereignty, and wh