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Analyzing the United States Constitution in 90 Days

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A 90 Day Study of the United States Constitution For Kids and Adults February 21 – June 24, 2011 Featuring Essays by Constituting America National Youth Director Juliette Turner – U.S. Constitution for Kids Essays And Guest Constitutional Scholars Analyzing the Constitution in 90 Days Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists Analyzing the Contitution in 90 Days - Constitutional Fun Facts for Kids Juliette Turner Constituting America National Youth Director Analyzing the Contitution in 90 Days - Constitutional Scholar Essayists David Addington Vice President for Domestic and Economic Policy The Heritage Foundation Steven H. Aden, Esq. Senior Counsel Alliance Defense Fund Prof. Bill Allen Michigan State University John S. Baker Professor of Law Emeritus Louisiana State University Law School Andrew Baskin, Attorney Director of Education & Volunteers The Constitutional Sources Project James D. Best Author of Tempest At Dawn David J. Bobb, Ph.D. Director and Lecturer in Politics Allan P. Kirby, Jr. Center for Constitutional Studies and Citizenship Hillsdale College Justin Butterfield Constitutional Attorney, Liberty Institute Robert Chapman-Smith Instructional Design Associate, Bill of Rights Institute Horace Cooper Legal Commentator and a Senior Fellow with the Heartland Institute Carol Crossed Owner and President Susan B. Anthony Birthplace Museum Cynthia Dunbar Asst. Prof. of Law Liberty University School of Law William Duncan Director, Marriage Law Foundation Scot Faulkner Executive Director The Dreyfuss Initiative Colin Hanna President, Let Freedom Ring Allison Hayward Vice President of Policy, Center for Competitive Politics Hadley Heath Senior Policy Analyst, Independent Women’s Forum Troy Kickler Founding Director of the North Carolina History Project Joerg W. Knipprath Professor of Law, Southwestern Law School David B. Kopel Research Director, Advanced Constitutional Law Denver University, Sturm College of Law Marc Lampkin Quinn Gillespie and Associates Andrew Langer President The Institute for Liberty Gary McCaleb Senior Counsel Alliance Defense Fund Dan Morenoff Attorney Prof. Will Morrisey Hillsdale College Joe Postell Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Colorado – Colorado Springs Jeff Reed Former Constitutional Law Professor, Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, Kentucky Professor Charles Rice Professor Emeritus of Law at the University of Notre Dame Judge Jim Rogan Superior Court of California Tara Ross Author, Enlightened Democracy: The Case for the Electoral College Dr. Charles K. Rowley Duncan Black Professor of Economics at George Mason University and General Director of The Locke Institute George Schrader Student of Political Science, Hillsdale College Prof. Kyle Scott Department of Political Science University of Houston Mr. Kelly Shackelford President and CEO of Liberty Institute Julia Shaw Research Associate and Program Manager B. Kenneth Simon Center for American Studies Larry Spiwak Lawrence J. Spiwak President, Phoenix Center for Advanced Legal & Economic Public Policy Studies W. David Stedman Editor, Our Ageless Constitution Nathaniel Stewart Attorney Paul S. Teller, Ph.D. Executive Director of the Republican Study Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives Kevin Theriot Senior Counsel, Alliance Defense Fund February 21, 2011 – Analyzing the Constitution for 90 Days – The Preamble to the United States Constitution – Guest Essayist: David Bobb, Ph.D., director of the Hillsdale College Allan P. Kirby, Jr. Center for Constitutional Studies and Citizenship, in Washington, D.C. Monday, March 7th, 2011 The Preamble to the United States Constitution 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. The Preamble to the Constitution was added at the last minute by the Constitutional Convention, roundly criticized upon its announcement, and even today lacks any legal standing. So what does it mean, and why does it matter? “We the People” was a powerful and even revolutionary way to announce the Americans’ new form of government, for encapsulated in these three opening words was the argument for a new regime that is in keeping with the principles advanced in the Declaration of 1776, and defended in the War for Independence. Whereas the previous compact of the United States, the Articles of Confederation, had been a “firm league of friendship” joined by states, the new Constitution was formed by the people as a whole. The national government was sovereign, not the states. To Anti-Federalists, the Constitution went awry from the outset, for in its first phrase, they held, it announced a form of government that would eliminate the power of the states and thereby destroy the liberties of the people. Nothing could be further from the truth, Federalists responded correctly, for unless the nation wished to continue in abject weakness, it needed to empower the national government to do what the states could not, thus ensuring that the liberties of the people would be secure. Owing to the fluid style and incisive intellect of Pennsylvanian Gouverneur Morris, who despite being the most loquacious of the delegates to the Constitutional Convention was also among the most profound, the Preamble was his parting gift to the nation, drafted as he did the final edits to the document as a whole. Remedying the weaknesses of the Articles, the new Constitution would accomplish all of ends stated in its Preamble. Morris gave those ends concise expression, and despite his clarity, they were misunderstood in his day, and often, for very different reasons, continue to be misunderstood in ours. Take, for example, two of the six ends, or goals, adduced in the Preamble: the first, which is “to form a more perfect Union,” and the fifth, to “promote the general Welfare.” To some Anti-Federalists, the phrase “to form a more perfect Union” was taken to entail a process of perfection whereby the states would be gradually crowded out, and more and more power would be given to the central government, so that when the evolution was complete all three main functions—legislative, executive, and judicial—would be held by one consolidated power. Such would not only be a violation of the Constitution’s set-up, it would also trammel everything the Declaration had stated against the King’s own arrogation of authority. Publius and many other Federalists had a ready response for this erroneous reading. There are many who today take the phrase, “to form a more perfect Union,” to mean that the steady march of Progress must carry us closer and closer to perfection. Intent on leaving behind old, outdated ideas, and replacing them with a “new foundation” for our government, contemporary Progressives take the Preamble out of context in supposing it an endorsement of their agenda. “To form a more perfect Union” meant nothing about the future, and everything about the past. It meant, simply, that the Constitution would be an improvement upon the Articles of Confederation, which left much to be desired in its anemic, nearly non-existent central government. The Constitution is the architecture of our equality and liberty not because of some supposed Progressivism in the Preamble, but rather because of its foundation in principles that are enduring. While some Anti-Federalists wondered whether the fifth end, or purpose, of the Preamble, to “promote the general Welfare,” would, along with its recapitulation later in the first article of the Constitution, create too broad a grant of power, the overwhelming consensus at the time of the Founding was that the word “general” precluded the kind of projects that today we know as “pork.” Today the Preamble’s “general Welfare” reference is occasionally cited in error as a constitutional grant of authority. The Preamble can confer no such legal boon, and even if it could, the phrase “general Welfare” would allow very little, if any, of the legislative activity that the frequent misreading of the first clause of the Constitution’s Article I, Section 8, has permitted. In other words, to “promote the general Welfare” must be understood within the limited government context in which it was written. Limited government for the Founders did not mean weak government. On the contrary, government had to be strong to secure the rights of the people. This is obvious when three other ends not examined in detail here are considered. To “establish Justice,” “insure domestic Tranquility,” and “provide for the common defence”: How do each of these ends require strong government—stronger than provided under the Articles of Confederation? The Constitution’s Preamble states six ends of government, the sixth of which is, to “secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.” It is this phrase, especially, that might remind us of the president of the Constitutional Convention, and the “Father of our Country,” George Washington, whose birthday should remind us how much we owe to him for the “blessings of liberty” that we so richly enjoy today. David J. Bobb, Ph.D. is director of the Hillsdale College Allan P. Kirby, Jr. Center for Constitutional Studies and Citizenship, in Washington, D.C. Click on http://www.hillsdale.edu/KirbyCenter/about/staff/bobb.asp to read Dr. Bobb’s biography. U.S. Constitution for Kids - The Preamble to the Constitution - February 21, 2010 - Interpretation of Dr. David Bobb's Essay The Preamble to the United States Constitution 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. The Preamble is probably the most well know part of the Constitution. But do we really know what it means? Do we thoroughly understand the actual meaning of each phrase? It is important to know how to use and comprehend these phrases correctly.
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