Volume CLXXVI • No. 1

The Federal Ledger

Est. 1776 • Digital Archive of the Republic

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Constitution • 1787

Preamble to the Constitution

Gouverneur Morris
Preamble to the Constitution
Facsimile — via Wikimedia Commons

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Written by Gouverneur Morris in 1787, the Preamble names the People — not the states — as the source of constitutional authority and lays out six purposes for the new government: union, justice, tranquility, defense, welfare, and liberty. It is the shortest and most quoted passage of American law.

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.
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