e a meaning
congenial with the purposes of the Constitution." Those purposes, of
course, are expressed in its preamble, or in the body of the instrument,
or in both. The preamble itself, in this case, is sufficient to show
them. It commences with the significant words: "We THE PEOPLE of the
United States"--words, instinct with the very consciousness of the
possession of that supreme power by the People or public, which made
this not only a Nation, but a Republic; and, after stating the purposes
or objects sought by the People in thus instituting this Republic,
proceeds to use that supreme political power vested in them, by
ordaining and establishing "this CONSTITUTION for the United States of
America." And, from the very first article, down to the last, of that
"Constitution," or "structure," or "frame," or "form" of government,
already self-evidently and self-consciously and avowedly Republican,
that form is fashioned into a distinctively representative Republican
government.

The purposes themselves, as declared in the preamble, for which the
People of the United States thus spake this representative Republic into
being, are also full of light. Those purposes were "to form a more
perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquillity, provide
for the common defense, promote the General Welfare, and secure the
Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity."

How is it possible, for instance, that "the Blessings
of Liberty" are to be secured to "ourselves and our Posterity," if
citizens of the United States, despite the XVth Amendment of that
Constitution, find-through the machinations of political organizations
--their right to vote, both abridged and denied, in many of the States,
"on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude?" How,
if, in such States, "the right of the people to be secure in their
persons, houses, and effects, against unreasonable searches and
seizures," is habitually violated, despite the IVth Amendment of that
Constitution? How, if, in such States, persons are notoriously and
frequently "deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process
of law," in violation of the Vth Amendment of that Constitution? Yet
such is the state of affairs generally prevalent in many States of the
Solid South.

These provisions in the Constitution were, with others, placed there for
the very purpose of securing "the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and
our Posterity,"