"
The preamble to the Constitution proposed by the Convention of 1787 is
in these words:
"We, the people of the United States, in order 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,
do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States
of America."
The phraseology of this preamble has been generally regarded as the
stronghold of the advocates of consolidation. It has been interpreted as
meaning that "we, the people of the United States," as a collective
body, or as a "nation," in our aggregate capacity, had "ordained and
established" the Constitution _over_ the States.
This interpretation constituted, in the beginning, the most serious
difficulty in the way of the ratification of the Constitution. It was
probably this to which that sturdy patriot, Samuel Adams, of
Massachusetts, alluded, when he wrote to Richard Henry Lee, "I stumble
at the threshold." Patrick Henry, in the Virginia Convention, on the
third day of the session, and in the very opening of the debate,
attacked it vehemently. He said, speaking of the system of government
set forth in the proposed Constitution:
"That this is a consolidated government is demonstrably clear;
and the danger of such a government is, to my mind, very
striking.
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