The Preamble

The Preamble reads in full: 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. Gouverneur Morris of Pennsylvania wrote the final wording as a member of the Convention's Committee of Style in September 1787.

An earlier draft began by listing the thirteen states by name. Morris replaced the list with We the People of the United States, partly because no one knew which states would ratify, and the change came to symbolize that the Constitution rests on the authority of the people rather than the states. The six purposes, union, justice, domestic order, defense, general welfare, and liberty, frame what the government that follows is meant to do.

The Preamble grants no powers and creates no rights. The Supreme Court held in Jacobson v. Massachusetts in 1905 that it is not a source of substantive power for the government, and courts do not decide cases under it. It is nonetheless cited regularly by judges and officials as a statement of the Constitution's goals, and its first three words are among the most quoted in American political language.