Page:A View of the Constitution.djvu/35

 CHAPTER I.

THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES.

government, formed under the appellation of the United States of America, is declared in the solemn instrument which is denominated the Constitution, to be "ordained and established by 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 die blessings of liberty to themselves and their posterity."

In this distinct exposition of principles, most of which are common to all freemen, and some peculiar to the situation of our country, we perceive the motives, and are guided in the construction of the instrument. We find the intention to create a new political society; to form a new government which the necessities and danglers of our country loudly required. The imperfect and inefficient confederation of 1779, is intended to be abandoned. The states are no longer to be known to each other merely as states. The people of the states unite with each other, without destroying their previous organization. They vest in a new government, all the powers necessary for the attainment of the great objects to which the states separately or confederated, had been found incompetents. They reserve to the state governments, or to themselves, only what is not