Free «Preamble to the Constitution» Essay Paper

The term “We the people” was established in order to achieve six specific goals which include to safeguard the blessings of liberty, to stimulate the overall welfare to ourselves and our future generations, to sustain the common defense, to insure domestic serenity, to institute justice and to make a more perfect union, to establish and even ordain this Constitution for the United States of America. It conflicts with the term “we are a collection” in that, it calls for people grouping themselves according to their similarities. For example, a collection made up of people of the same race, a collection of people from the same state, a collection of people of the same decent or a collection of people of the same political ideologies. Therefore, they do not look at the interests of the overall society but rather the interest of their collections. It goes against the principles of “we the people” of safeguarding the blessings of liberty, promoting the overall welfare, to ourselves and our future generations, ensuring the common defense, insuring domestic serenity, instituting justice and creating a more perfect union. Formation of these collections with common characteristics and goals is what can lead to civil war due to different collections of individuals having conflicting interests. Eventually they end up confronting each other as each side strives to fight for what they believe in.

 

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The phrase “establish justice” in in 1787 Constitution meant to make sure that the United States is ruled by law. The constitution has not always established justice Within the United States; we have experienced many battles and fights in order to establish justice. Two significant movements that assisted the United States to establish justice were the African American Civil Rights Movement and the Women’s Suffrage Movement. One of the Constitution aims is to “establish Justice.” A recent illustration of this was the Bush Administration determined to “establish Justice” in Iraq. Following the 2001, September 11 attacks, Bush’s words to the Congress were: “Whether we bring justice to our enemies or bring our enemies to justice, justice will prevail.” This demonstrates how President Bush is concentrating on establishing justice, even though it is not within our nation. Overall, I believe that the United States has been successful in establishing justice today.

The 1787 Constitution refers to the “general welfare” as the power of the Congress will have to collect and lay Excises, Imposts, Duties and Taxes, in order to provide for the general welfare and the common defense and to wage the Debts of the United States. In the Preamble to the Constitution It states that “WE THE PEOPLE” formed the Constitution to “promote the general Welfare”. This, however, did not mean that the central government had the mandate to subsidize business, build roads, and aid education. Similarly, Article 1, Section 8 did not provide Congress with the mandate to use money, obtained from taxes, for whatever economic and social programs Congress may decide would be worthy for the “general welfare.” James Madison was of the opinion that the “general welfare” section was not proposed to provide Congress with the power “to use every power which may be deemed essential for the general welfare or common defense.” If by the “general welfare,” the constitution had intended whichever educational, economic or social programs Congress wanted to form, there would lack purpose to list particular powers of Congress, for instance, maintaining the armed forces and establishing courts. Those powers would basically have been contained within one all-inclusive phrase, to “promote the general welfare.” I believe we have expanded that term too much in the operation of the federal government today as the government has committed itself to champion the general welfare of all persons, contrary to protecting the interests of a class or narrow section of the population. This sums up what is most distinctive about the United States of America--that it is the only present country established on this principle.