Preamble Street

 Would you like to learn more about  this most famous paragraph in American history? Well, buckle your seat belts...
 

What is a Preamble?
"An introductory statement in a  constitution, statute, or other document explaining the document's basis  and objective; esp., a statutory recital of the inconveniences for  which the statute is designed to provide a remedy. (From Black's Law Dictionary, Eighth Edition).
 

Birth of the Preamble to the US Constitution
On August 6, 1787, Mr. John Rutledge, of  South Carolina, head of the Committee of Detail presented the first  complete draft of the United States Constitution.  The Committee of  Detail had been created on July  23, 1787, for the purpose of organizing the various resolutions and  ideas which had taken shape throughout the course of that summer. 
 

There were five members of the Committee of Detail: Mr. John Rutledge of  South Carolina, Mr. Edmund Randolph of Virginia, Mr. Nathaniel Gorham  of Massachusetts, Mr. Oliver Ellsworth of Connecticut and Mr. James  Wilson of Pennsylvania.  (See Madison's  Notes on the Debates in the Federal Convention for July 23, 1787 at   http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/debates_723.asp).
 

On July 26, the Federal Convention "unanimously Adjourned till Monday,  August 6 that the Come. [Committee] of detail might have  time to  prepare & report the Constitution."  (See "Madison's Notes on the Debates in the Federal Convention" for July 26, 1787 at http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/debates_726.asp).

In this first complete draft of the new Constitution, the preamble appeared as follows:
 

"We  the people of the States of New Hampshire, Massachussetts, Rhode-Island  and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New-York, New-Jersey,  Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North-Carolina,  South-Carolina, and Georgia, do ordain, declare, and establish the  following Constitution for the Government of Ourselves and our  Posterity."  (See "Madison's Notes on the Debates in the Federal Convention" for August 6, 1787 at http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/debates_806.asp).

James Wilson is credited as the author of this first, mundane version of the Preamble.  (From David O. Stewart, The Summer of 1787: The Men Who Invented the Constitution p.169)
 

Compare the Preamble to the Articles of Confederation

The  Articles of Confederation, drafted in 1777, and ratified as the form of  government of the United States of America since March 1, 1781, began  with a preamble similar in style:
 

"To  all to whom these Presents shall come, we the undersigned Delegates of  the States affixed to our Names send greeting.  Articles of  Confederation and perpetual Union between the states of New Hampshire,  Massachusetts-bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut,  New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North  Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia."   
 
Customarily, a preamble lists the law's objectives, which is not the  case in the preamble to the Articles of Confederation or the first draft  of the preamble to the US Constitution.  That, of course, is not the  end of the story.
 

The Preamble Evolves: The Committe of Style and Arrangement
On  September 8, 1787, with the convention quickly drawing to a close, a  "Committee was then appointed by Ballot to revise the stile of and  arrange the articles which had been agreed to by the House."  The  members of the committee were William Samuel Johnson, Alexander  Hamilton, Gouverneur Morris, James Madison and Rufus King. These five  men were known as the Committee of Style and Arrangement and it was  their job to organize the layout of the numerous resolutions that had  already taken shape and formed the new Constitution.  (See "Madison's Notes on the Debates in the Federal Convention" for September 8, 1787 at http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/debates_908.asp). 
 

Although it was a five man committee, the chairman,  William Johnson, asked Gouveneur Morris to write the final draft.   Remember, the committee meetings were not documented as the convention  was, but both Morris and Madison confirmed the latter's authorship.  (From David O. Stewart, The Summer of 1787: The Men Who Invented the Constitution p.232).
 

Origins of "We the People"
The phrase "We  the People"  has taken on a mystical quality in political history. The very concept  of "the People" as the authors of this new Constitution created, in  history, an element of revolution, especially considering the era in  which these words were written, when most other governments in the world  were ruled by, at best, constitutional monarchies, and at worst  tyrannies.  The birth of this phrase is not quite as miraculous as one  would expect, however.
 

When Morris sat at his desk in Mrs. Baily's rooming house on Market  Street, where he resided during the Constitutional Convention, to polish  up the Constitution, he was unsure whether all of the states would  ratify it.  With Rhode Island never in attendance at the Convention and  the delegates from New York (besides Hamilton) having gone home, the  original preamble cataloging all of the states as the authors of the  Constitution, would be inaccurate and presumptuous.  So, "We  the People " was born of very practical parents.
 

Although the extraordinary words "We the People" had a very ordinary and  utilitarian birth, their power cannot be discounted.  To quote  Catherine Drinker Bowen: "Nor did members of the committee foresee that  in Europe the phrase would serve as an inspiration, a flag of defiance  against absolutist kings."  (From Catherine Drinker Bowen, Miracle at Philadelphia, p. 240.) 

As for the rest of the Preamble, it did not take long for Morris to  complete the entire first draft of the Constitution, so he could not  dwell too much on the balance of the words.  Bowen concludes, the "seven  verbs...form, establish, insure, provide, promote, secure,  ordain...set[ ] down a working instrument of government which must be  plain, brief and strategically vague in places to give play for future  circumstances."  (From Catherine Drinker Bowen, Miracle at Philadelphia, p. 241.)  In sum, Morris's preamble "distills the purposes of government." (From David O. Stewart, The Summer of 1787: The Men Who Invented the Constitution p.234).