Preamble



Document 16

A Native of Virginia, Observations upon the Proposed Plan of Federal Government

1788Monroe Writings 1:356

The introduction, like a preamble to a law, is the Key of the Constitution. Whenever federal power is exercised, contrary to the spirit breathed by this introduction, it will be unconstitutionally exercised, and ought to be resisted by the people.


The Founders' Constitution
Volume 2, Preamble, Document 16
http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/preambles16.html
The University of Chicago Press

The Writings of James Monroe. Edited by Stanislaus Murray Hamilton. 7 vols. New York and London: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1898--1903.

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