| The preamble of the document should state its guiding principles. In that respect, the US Constitution is illuminating, but perhaps a bit too concise. The Age of Enlightenment influenced many of the early documents of the US, and one of its most eloquent statements of principle was the Declaration of Independence.
In my first draft of a new constitution, I would like to add to and extend the US Constitution's preamble to include the more significant points made in the Declaration. Mind you, the original point of the Declaration was as a petition to the international community, featuring a list of grievances that was supposed to be the most important part of the document. As it turns out, the introductory material — that the author of the document considered to be obvious and worthy only of mention in passing — has had a lasting impact on the society, the confederation, the country that it gave a name to for the first time: the united States of America.
The preamble of the US Constitution reads:
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.
Some of these points need clarification in the context of the changes in the English language over the years, and in context of modern interpretation of some of the phrases.
The introduction of the Declaration of Independence reads:
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the consent of the governed, -- That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new guards for their future security.
I think we can do without the first paragraph; it only explains the purpose of the document itself, which, as a public complaint and request for audience, is different from the purpose of a constitution.
More to the point, I offer my rough first draft of the new preamble:
We, the people, believe these truths to be apparent and evident: that all people are created equal, and that in being created equal they are endowed with certain rights. These rights are basic, unalterable, and irrevocable. In their purest essence, they consist of rights to life, liberty, and property. These are the rights of the people. We believe that governments are formed specifically and only for the purpose of safeguarding these rights. To that end, it is our intention to create a document where the people are assumed to be the ultimate authority, and that for the sake of justice, the government must only derive its powers from the informed and willing consent of those it is intended to govern. When the government strays from this ideal too far or for too long, it is not only the right, but the duty of the people to remove it, change it, or eliminate it, in such a fashion as to replace it with a government more suited to the task of safeguarding rights and only that purpose.
The powers legitimately to be endowed to a government by its people must not impose material obligations upon the people; they must only serve to inhibit actions by others that would clearly infringe more on the rights of the people than exercise of those powers. When the government seeks to impose upon the people any requirement to submit their right to life, liberty, or property to infringement by the government, without just cause defined as the intent to prevent clearly greater infringements of the rights of the people, then the government has strayed from the ideal intent and purpose of government.
Beyond the safeguarding of the rights of the people, these are the interests of the government are, in no particular order:
- Creating stronger bonds between the regions, the states, the cities, and especially the people.
- Establishing a fair and equitable code and system of justice to prevent infringements of the rights of the people.
- Encouraging understanding, acceptance, and tolerance among the various people.
- Providing an organzation for the defense of the people from internal and external threats to the rights of the people.
- Promoting an environment in which the people's ability to improve their own circumstances is encouraged.
- Continuing these interests in the future to preserve the same security of rights for our descendants.
Only for these interests do we, the people, create and establish this constitution for the government of this country, and grant it authority.
That's my preamble. It combines the elements of the current US Constitution's preamble with the introductory material from the Declaration of Independence in such a way as to make utterly clear the intent and purpose for the creation of this specific government.
Up next: Statement of the limits of power of the government. Also known as "my take on the Bill of Rights." |
