Preamble

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquillity, 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.

1.John Locke, Second Treatise, § 131, 1689
2.William Blackstone, Commentaries 1:157, 1765
3.Virginia Declaration of Rights, secs. 2--3, 12 June 1776
4.Declaration of Independence, 4 July 1776
5.Vermont Constitution of 1777, Preamble
6.Vermont Constitution of 1786, Preamble
7.Records of the Federal Convention
8.James Wilson, Pennsylvania Ratifying Convention, 11 Dec. 1787
9.Luther Martin, Genuine Information, 1788
10.James Madison, Federalist, no. 37, 233--39, 11 Jan. 1788
11.Charles Pinckney, South Carolina House of Representatives, 16 Jan. 1788
12.Brutus, no. 12, 7 Feb. 1788
13.Alexander Hamilton, Federalist, no. 84, 578--79, 28 May 1788
14.Patrick Henry, Virginia Ratifying Convention, 4 June 1788
15.Debate in North Carolina Ratifying Convention, 24 July 1788
16.A Native of Virginia, Observations upon the Proposed Plan of Federal Government, 1788
17.House of Representatives, Amendments to the Constitution, 14 Aug. 1789
18.Martin v. Hunter's Lessee
19.McCulloch v. Maryland
20.James Monroe, Views of the President of the United States on the Subject of Internal Improvements, 4 May 1822
21.Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution, 1:§§ 459, 462--63, 469--70, 471--76, 482--86, 489, 493--97, 500--501, 506, 1833
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