Jonah Patel
The US Constitution is a document that was signed on September 17, 1787, and ratified on June 21, 1788. It is composed of a preamble, seven articles, and 27 amendments, the first 10 of which are known as the Bill of Rights. The preamble, which begins with the words We the People, sets the stage for the Constitution by clearly communicating the intentions of the framers and the purpose of the document. The seven articles that follow make up the structural constitution. The US Constitution is one of the longest-lived and most emulated constitutions in the world.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Number of pages | 4 |
| Number of articles | 7 |
| Number of amendments | 27 |
| First 10 amendments | The Bill of Rights |
| First words | We the People |
| Preamble word count | 52 |
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What You'll Learn
The US Constitution's preamble
The US Constitution is a powerful document that was first drafted in mid-June 1777 and adopted by the full Congress in mid-November of the same year. The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union was the first constitution of the United States. The US Constitution has a preamble that sets the stage for the rest of the document. The preamble is an introduction to the highest law of the land, but it is not the law itself. It expresses the purpose of the Constitution and clearly communicates the intentions of its framers.
The preamble was drafted in six weeks during the hot Philadelphia summer of 1787. The framers agreed on the following basic principles: "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."
The preamble's language was influenced by the Declaration of Independence, which justified America's independence from Great Britain in 1776. The original draft of the preamble began with a list of the states, but this was later revised to strengthen the idea that "the people" rather than "the states" created the government. The final draft of the preamble, authored by Gouverneur Morris, a delegate from Pennsylvania, was presented to the convention on September 12, 1787.
The preamble sets out five key objectives: establishing justice, insuring domestic tranquility, providing common defence, promoting general welfare, and securing the blessings of liberty for the people and their posterity. These objectives reflect the framers' intention to create "a more perfect union" and serve as a guidepost for measuring progress towards building a prosperous nation.
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Articles and amendments
The US Constitution is made up of seven articles that define the basic framework of the federal government. The first three articles embody the doctrine of the separation of powers, dividing the federal government into three branches: the legislative, consisting of the bicameral Congress (Article I); the executive, consisting of the president and subordinate officers (Article II); and the judicial, consisting of the Supreme Court and other federal courts (Article III).
Article IV, Article V, and Article VI embody concepts of federalism, describing the rights and responsibilities of state governments, the states in relation to the federal government, and the shared process of constitutional amendment. Article V, for example, outlines the procedure for proposing and ratifying amendments to the Constitution. Article VI establishes the procedure used by the 13 states to ratify the Constitution.
The Constitution also includes a preamble and a closing endorsement. The preamble, though not law, sets the stage for the Constitution by communicating the intentions of the framers and the purpose of the document. The framers agreed on the following basic principles:
> 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.
The US Constitution has been amended several times since its ratification. A proposed amendment becomes an operative part of the Constitution as soon as it is ratified by three-fourths of the States (38 out of 50 states). The Fourteenth Amendment (1868), for example, granted US citizenship to former slaves and dramatically expanded the protections of the Constitution by limiting state power. The Sixteenth Amendment (1913) removed existing Constitutional constraints on Congress's power to lay and collect income taxes, greatly expanding the scope of federal taxing and spending.
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Ratification of amendments
The process of amending the US Constitution is outlined in Article V of the Constitution. The Constitution can be amended either by a two-thirds majority vote in both the House of Representatives and the Senate or by a constitutional convention called for by two-thirds of the state legislatures. However, to date, all amendments have been proposed by Congress, and the convention method of ratification has only been used once, for the Twenty-first Amendment.
Once an amendment is proposed by Congress, it is sent to the Office of the Federal Register (OFR), which processes and publishes it in slip law format. The OFR also creates an information package for the states, which includes formal "red-line" copies of the joint resolution and copies of the resolution in slip law format.
The proposed amendment is then submitted to the states for their consideration. The Archivist of the United States sends a letter of notification to each state's governor, who then formally submits the amendment to their state legislature. The state legislature can then choose to ratify the amendment.
When a state ratifies a proposed amendment, it sends the Archivist an original or certified copy of the state's action. The OFR examines these ratification documents for facial legal sufficiency and an authenticating signature. Once the required number of authenticated ratification documents is received (currently 38 out of 50 states), the OFR drafts a formal proclamation for the Archivist to certify that the amendment is valid and has become part of the Constitution. This certification is published in the Federal Register and U.S. Statutes at Large, serving as official notice that the amendment process is complete.
The process of amending the Constitution demonstrates the careful balance of powers and the importance of consensus-building in the US political system. The ratification process ensures that any changes to the Constitution reflect the will of a significant majority of the states, protecting against hasty or unilateral changes to the nation's foundational document.
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The role of committees
The United States Constitution was drafted by a committee appointed by the Second Continental Congress in mid-June 1777. The committee of detail worked on the report from August 6 to September 10, discussing it section by section and clause by clause. A Committee of Style and Arrangement was then appointed to distill a final draft constitution from the 23 approved articles. This committee included Alexander Hamilton from New York, William Samuel Johnson from Connecticut, Rufus King from Massachusetts, James Madison from Virginia, and Gouverneur Morris from Pennsylvania. The final draft, presented on September 12, contained seven articles, a preamble, and a closing endorsement, of which Morris was the primary author.
The Constitution did not mention nor provide for committees in Congress, but both the House of Representatives and the Senate utilized them beginning with the very first Congress. The Senate's first select committee was appointed on April 7, 1789, to draw up Senate rules of procedure. In the first decade of the 19th century, the Senate had only four standing or permanent committees, responsible for "housekeeping" tasks. During the era of temporary committees, the Senate first met to discuss legislation as a "Committee of the Whole," facilitating debate on legislation.
The need for committees grew, and during the 12th Congress (1811-1813), the Senate created 250 select committees. In response, the Senate established a system of permanent standing committees, with 11 created at the start of the second session of the 14th Congress in December 1816. The procedure for assigning committee seats changed frequently in the first decades, with responsibility shifting between the full Senate, the presiding officer, and the president pro tempore.
Today, committees are essential to the effective operation of the Senate. They gather information, draft and recommend legislation, evaluate presidential nominees, and provide oversight of federal government operations. The Senate currently has 16 standing committees, four special or select committees, and four joint committees. Standing committees are permanent bodies with specific responsibilities and jurisdictions defined in the Senate's rules, and their names and jurisdictions are updated periodically to address the issues of an evolving nation.
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The document's historical context
The US Constitution was signed on September 17, 1787, and ratified on June 21, 1788. It was intended as a revision of the Articles of Confederation, which was America's first constitution. The Articles of Confederation gave the Confederation Congress the power to make rules and request funds from the states, but it lacked enforcement powers, couldn't regulate commerce, and couldn't print money. This led to disputes between the states over territory, war pensions, taxation, and trade, threatening to tear the young nation apart.
James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and George Washington were among those who feared their country was on the brink of collapse, and Hamilton helped convince Congress to organize a Grand Convention of state delegates to revise the Articles. The Constitutional Convention assembled in Philadelphia in May 1787, and after three months of heated debate, a Committee of Detail was appointed to put its decisions in writing. A Committee of Style and Arrangement then condensed the 23 approved articles into seven in less than four days. The final draft, presented on September 12, contained seven articles, a preamble, and a closing endorsement.
The Constitution was signed by 38 delegates, with George Reed signing for the absent John Dickinson of Delaware, bringing the total number of signatures to 39. It was then submitted to the Congress of the Confederation in New York City on September 17, 1787, and within just 11 days, Congress voted unanimously to forward the proposal to the 13 states for their ratification. The Constitution has been amended 27 times, with the first 10 amendments comprising the Bill of Rights, ratified on December 15, 1791.
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Frequently asked questions
The US Constitution is the highest law of the land, establishing the framework of the US government and outlining the rights and responsibilities of said government and its citizens.
The US Constitution is composed of a preamble, seven articles, and 27 amendments. The first 10 amendments are collectively known as the Bill of Rights.
The preamble is an introduction to the Constitution, communicating the intentions of its framers and the purpose of the document. It is not a law and does not define government powers or individual rights.
The seven articles outline specific aspects of the US government and its functions. They cover topics such as the legislative branch (Article I), the executive branch (Article II), the judicial branch (Article III), the states' relationship to the federal government (Article IV), and the amendment process (Article V).
Amendments can be proposed and ratified through different methods. The convention method of ratification has only been used once, for the Twenty-first Amendment. Typically, a proposed amendment becomes operative once ratified by three-fourths of the states (38 out of 50). The Office of the Federal Register then verifies the ratification documents and drafts a formal proclamation for the Archivist to certify the amendment's validity.
