Introduction to America’s Founding Documents
No documents have had a greater influence on the citizens of our country than the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution. The Declaration of Independence marked the birth of our republic and set forth our “unalienable rights” to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Later, the Constitution outlined our style of government and defined the rights that are protected from intrusion by government.
These documents have been a beacon to all men and women who value freedom. They are just as meaningful now as when they were written. As the American statesman Henry Clay said, “The Constitution of the United States was not made merely for the generation that then existed but for posterity – unlimited, undefined, endless, perpetual posterity.”
The Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution were written with the intent that they could be easily read and understood by ordinary citizens. The difficulty comes with the changes in the English language that have occurred since they were written, making both documents more difficult to decipher. Freedom Defined addresses this problem by providing instant access to the definitions of words and phrases used in these documents. The definitions are based on dictionaries used during the early years of the United States, the records of the Constitutional Convention, and the writings of the Founding Fathers.
Preface
Benjamin Franklin, one of the few men to sign both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States, is among the greatest statesmen America has ever produced. He had only two years of schooling as a child, but as he grew to young manhood he taught himself through reading, writing, hard work, travel, and scientific experimentation. Through this program of self-education he eventually became an internationally acclaimed scholar and inventor, receiving honorary degrees from several universities on two continents.
In 1760, Franklin gave a young friend this advice about studying difficult books: “I think it would be well for you to have a good dictionary at hand, to consult immediately when you meet with a word you do not comprehend the precise meaning of. This may at first seem troublesome and interrupting; but it is a trouble that will daily diminish, as you will daily find less and less occasion for your dictionary, as you become more acquainted with the terms; and in the meantime you will read with more satisfaction, because with more understanding.”
To Teenagers Who Use Freedom Defined
Each time we pledge allegiance to the American flag, we also pledge our loyalty and support to “the republic for which it stands.” This resource will help you discover the meaning of that promise. We speak of our republic as “one nation, under God, . . . with liberty and justice for all.” But where did our liberty come from? What can we do to guard against losing it?
To answer these two important questions, we must first understand the two great documents that have made America “the land of the free.” The United States became a nation in 1776 through the Declaration of Independence, which announced to the world that we were no longer part of the British kingdom. The Declaration says that all people are “created equal” and are born with certain God-given rights, including “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” It also states that we have the right to organize whatever form of government we believe will best protect us and our freedoms.
To accomplish this, the American people adopted the Constitution of the United States. Building on the foundation principles set forth in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution went into effect in 1789 as a “government of the people, by the people, for the people.” It was a new kind of government, one that had never before been tried. It limited, divided, and balanced authority between the states and the three branches of the federal government so that no person or group would have enough power to trample on the people’s rights.
For more than two hundred years America has been viewed as the home of liberty by many nations of the world. Our constitutional system has been called “the great engine of freedom.” But, like any valuable machine, it requires careful and frequent attention to continue operating correctly. In a people’s government, it is the people themselves who must provide this attention. Each generation of Americans must earn again the rights and liberties passed on to them.
It will soon be your generation’s turn to protect the freedoms secured by the US Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. To do so, you must first read and understand these two vital documents. Although both of them were written for ordinary citizens, certain parts are not easy to read today because the English language has changed in some ways since the late 1700s. That is why this resource has been prepared.
By providing definitions of many difficult words and phrases, Freedom Defined can help you understand the documents that gave birth to our country. The definitions are based on dictionaries used during the early years of the United States, the records of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, and the writings of the Founding Fathers and others who have studied the US Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. The great men and women who formed our nation created a wise and effective system of self-government that has made Americans the first free people in modern times. Their flame of freedom has now been passed to us. May we hold it high for future generations to see and follow.
To Adults Who Use Freedom Defined
No two political documents have had a more dramatic and far-reaching influence on human liberty than the American Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States. They are inseparable parts of one whole: the first proclaims the philosophical ideals on which a free nation was founded, while the second provides the practical means by which those ideals may be implemented and perpetuated. The freedoms we now enjoy are the product, and thus depend on the preservation, of America’s unique system of self-government. For this reason, each new generation of Americans inherits an obligation to uphold and safeguard that system.
We owe our allegiance to the US Constitution, not to political candidates, parties, or programs. It is the “supreme law of the land” and should therefore govern us and our leaders. To safely utilize and maintain our free political process, we must know how to govern ourselves in accordance with correct constitutional principles. While serving as President, George Washington called for “the education of our youth in the science of government". He said, "in a republic, what species of knowledge can be equally important? and what duty more pressing...than...communicating it to those who are to be the future guardians of the liberties of the country?”
Parents and educators followed his advice and for many years thereafter virtually all Americans understood the Constitution and how it was designed to work. Alexis de Tocqueville, a distinguished French jurist who visited the United States in the 1830s, observed that “the instruction of the people powerfully contributes to the support of the democratic republic.... If you question [an American] respecting his own country, ...he will inform you what his rights are and by what means he exercises them.... In the United States, politics are the end and aim of education.”
It is now our generation’s turn to “preserve, protect, and defend” the principles set forth in our nation’s founding documents. To do so, we must first read and understand them. That is the purpose for which this resource has been prepared. The Declaration of Independence was authored by Thomas Jefferson. The US Constitution, based on an initial plan outlined by James Madison, was the product of many minds; but its final phrasing and its famous preamble came from the pen of Gouverneur Morris of Pennsylvania. Unlike most legal documents of that era, these were written for ordinary citizens rather than for attorneys.
As writer Edwin Newman observed, the US Constitution is “a remarkable example of straightforward, economical English...astonishingly free of legalese.” Nevertheless, present-day Americans find it considerably more difficult to read and understand the Constitution and the Declaration than did our forebears in the time of Washington and Tocqueville. This is true for several reasons. Both documents necessarily contain a number of technical terms; some English expressions have acquired new meanings over the last 230 years; and a few others have passed from our language altogether. Furthermore, the United States has experienced significant educational and demographic changes in this century. Many Americans, up until the early 1900's had better reading habits and larger vocabularies than we do in this age of television, the internet, and video games; moreover, they were not as ethnically, culturally, and linguistically diverse as we are today.
Freedom Defined recaptures the meaning of the US Constitution and the Declaration of Independence for modern readers. It is essentially a dictionary of words and phrases used in America’s founding documents. You will notice that descriptive subheadings have been added to each article, section, and clause to give a brief summary of its contents. The paragraphing of the original printed text of the Declaration has been slightly altered, and in both documents the paragraphs have been numbered (article and section numbers appeared in the original Constitution). Square brackets have been inserted in the Constitution to identify passages that are now obsolete or have been modified by later provisions.
The most notable feature of Freedom Defined is its extensive system of words containing tool-tips. These tool-tips provide simple, clear definitions of difficult words and phrases; no attempt is made to supply interpretive commentary, nor is any historical context reviewed beyond what is necessary to define a term or explain the status of a constitutional provision no longer in force. Simply hover over a hyper-linked word to see its definition.
To establish as nearly as possible the meaning intended by those who framed and adopted these two vital documents, the definitions are based on English and American dictionaries used during the Founding era, the records of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, and commentaries by the Founders themselves as well as those of reputable modern scholars. (See “Suggestions for Further Reading” below.)
In the final years of his life, Thomas Jefferson called upon the American people to “preserve inviolate [the] Constitution, which, cherished in all its chastity and purity, will prove in the end a blessing to all the nations of the earth.” Similarly, James Madison wrote that the men and women who founded our nation “accomplished a revolution which has no parallel in the annals of human society. . . . They formed the design of a great confederacy, which it is incumbent on their successors to improve and perpetuate.” We are their successors. And we can keep alive their grand experiment by becoming an enlightened citizenry and earning anew the “blessings of liberty” they sought to secure for themselves and all mankind.
The Fire of Freedom
America’s Founding Fathers, who authored and fought for the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, had very clear ideas about freedom. Here are a few representative quotations from their speeches and writings. They provide important insights into the nature and the source of our liberty, the dangers that can threaten it, and how we may remain a free people today.
Patrick Henry: “Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”
Benjamin Franklin: “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
Benjamin Rush: “Political freedom includes in it every other blessing. All the pleasures of riches, science, virtue, and even religion itself derive their value from liberty alone. No wonder...those illustrious souls who have employed their pens and sacrificed their lives in defense of liberty have met with such universal applause.”
John Dickinson: “Honor, justice, and humanity call upon us to hold, and to transmit to our posterity, that liberty which we received from our ancestors. It is not our duty to leave wealth to our children; but it is our duty to leave liberty to them.”
George Washington: “A government of as much vigor as is consistent with the perfect security of liberty is indispensable. Liberty itself will find in such a government, with powers properly distributed and adjusted, its surest guardian.”
Alexander Hamilton: “Real liberty is neither found in despotism or the extremes of democracy, but in moderate governments.”
Thomas Jefferson: “The way to have good and safe government is not to trust it all to one, but to divide it among the many. . . . What has destroyed liberty and the rights of man in every government which has ever existed under the sun? The generalizing and concentrating all cares and powers into one body.”
George Mason: “The right of the people to participate in the legislature is the best security of liberty, and the foundation of all free government; for this purpose elections ought to be free and frequent.” Thomas Jefferson: “The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.”
James Iredell: “The only real security of liberty in any country is the jealousy and circumspection of the people themselves. Let them be watchful over their rulers.”
Thomas Jefferson: “What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that [the] people preserve the spirit of resistance?”
Thomas Jefferson: “To preserve [our] independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt.”
Richard Henry Lee: “The first maxim of a man who loves liberty should be never to grant to rulers an atom of power that is not most clearly and indispensably necessary for the safety and well-being of society.”
James Madison: “Liberty may be endangered by the abuses of liberty as well as by the abuses of power.”
Samuel Adams: “Neither the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt. He therefore is the truest friend to the liberty of his country who tries most to promote its virtue, and who, so far as his power and influence extend, will not suffer a man to be chosen into any office of power and trust who is not a wise and virtuous man.”
Benjamin Franklin: “Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.”
Thomas Jefferson: “Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are . . . the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath?”
John Adams: “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
Alexander Hamilton: “An inviolable respect for the Constitution and laws . . . is the vital principle, the sustaining energy, of a free government.”
Thomas Jefferson: “Educate and inform the whole mass of the people. Enable them to see that it is their interest to preserve peace and order, and they will preserve them. . . . [The people] are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.”
Thomas Jefferson: “If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, . . . it expects what never was and never will be.”
James Madison: “It is universally admitted that a well-instructed people alone can be permanently a free people.”
George Washington: “The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty . . . [is] staked on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.”
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Declaration of Independence
Date: July 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
The United States Declaration of Independence is the pronouncement adopted by the Second Continental Congress meeting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on July 4, 1776. The Declaration explained why the Thirteen Colonies at war with the Kingdom of Great Britain regarded themselves as thirteen independent sovereign states, no longer under British rule. With the Declaration, these new states took a collective first step toward forming the United States of America. The declaration was signed by representatives from New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.
The Lee Resolution for independence was passed by the Second Continental Congress on July 2 with no opposing votes. The Committee of Five had drafted the Declaration to be ready when Congress voted on independence. John Adams, a leader in pushing for independence, had persuaded the committee to select Thomas Jefferson to compose the original draft of the document, which Congress edited to produce the final version. The Declaration was a formal explanation of why Congress had voted to declare independence from Great Britain, more than a year after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War. Adams wrote to his wife Abigail, "The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America" – although Independence Day is actually celebrated on July 4, the date that the wording of the Declaration of Independence was approved.
After ratifying the text on July 4, Congress issued the Declaration of Independence in several forms. It was initially published as the printed Dunlap broadside that was widely distributed and read to the public. The source copy used for this printing has been lost and may have been a copy in Thomas Jefferson's hand. Jefferson's original draft is preserved at the Library of Congress, complete with changes made by John Adams and Benjamin Franklin, as well as Jefferson's notes of changes made by Congress. The best-known version of the Declaration is a signed copy that is displayed at the National Archives in Washington, D.C., and which is popularly regarded as the official document. This engrossed copy (finalized, calligraphic copy) was ordered by Congress on July 19 and signed primarily on August 2.
The sources and interpretation of the Declaration have been the subject of much scholarly inquiry. The Declaration justified the independence of the United States by listing 27 colonial grievances against King George III and by asserting certain natural and legal rights, including a right of revolution. Its original purpose was to announce independence, and references to the text of the Declaration were few in the following years. Abraham Lincoln made it the centerpiece of his policies and his rhetoric, as in the Gettysburg Address of 1863. Since then, it has become a well-known statement on human rights, particularly its second sentence:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
The declaration was made to guarantee equal rights for every person, and if it had been intended for only a certain section of people, Congress would have left it as "rights of Englishmen".[8] Stephen Lucas called it "one of the best-known sentences in the English language",[9] with Joseph Ellis saying it contains "the most potent and consequential words in American history".[10] The passage came to represent a moral standard to which the United States should strive. This view was notably promoted by Lincoln, who considered the Declaration to be the foundation of his political philosophy and argued that it is a statement of principles through which the United States Constitution should be interpreted.
The Declaration of Independence inspired many similar documents in other countries, the first being the 1789 Declaration of United Belgian States issued during the Brabant Revolution in the Austrian Netherlands. It also served as the primary model for numerous declarations of independence in Europe and Latin America, as well as Africa (Liberia) and Oceania (New Zealand) during the first half of the 19th century.
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Constitution of the United States
Date: September 21, 1788
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.
- Preamble to the United States Constitution
The Constitution acted like a colossal merger, uniting a group of states with different interests, laws, and cultures. Under America’s first national government, the Articles of Confederation, the states acted together only for specific purposes. The Constitution united its citizens as members of a whole, vesting the power of the union in the people. Without it, the American Experiment might have ended as quickly as it had begun.
Why a Constitution?
The need for the Constitution grew out of problems with the Articles of Confederation, which established a “firm league of friendship” between the States, and vested most power in a Congress of the Confederation. This power was, however, extremely limited—the central government conducted diplomacy and made war, set weights and measures, and was the final arbiter of disputes between the States. Crucially, it could not raise any funds itself, and was entirely dependent on the States themselves for the money necessary to operate. Each State sent a delegation of between two and seven members to the Congress, and they voted as a bloc with each State getting one vote. But any decision of consequence required a unanimous vote, which led to a government that was paralyzed and ineffectual.
A movement to reform the Articles began, and invitations to attend a convention in Philadelphia to discuss changes to the Articles were sent to the State legislatures in 1787. In May of that year, delegates from 12 of the 13 States (Rhode Island sent no representatives) convened in Philadelphia to begin the work of redesigning government. The delegates to the Constitutional Convention quickly began work on drafting a new Constitution for the United States.
The Constitutional Convention
A chief aim of the Constitution as drafted by the Convention was to create a government with enough power to act on a national level, but without so much power that fundamental rights would be at risk. One way that this was accomplished was to separate the power of government into three branches, and then to include checks and balances on those powers to assure that no one branch of government gained supremacy. This concern arose largely out of the experience that the delegates had with the King of England and his powerful Parliament. The powers of each branch are enumerated in the Constitution, with powers not assigned to them reserved to the States.
Much of the debate, which was conducted in secret to ensure that delegates spoke their minds, focused on the form that the new legislature would take. Two plans competed to become the new government: the Virginia Plan, which apportioned representation based on the population of each State, and the New Jersey plan, which gave each State an equal vote in Congress. The Virginia Plan was supported by the larger States, and the New Jersey plan preferred by the smaller. In the end, they settled on the Great Compromise (sometimes called the Connecticut Compromise), in which the House of Representatives would represent the people as apportioned by population; the Senate would represent the States apportioned equally; and the President would be elected by the Electoral College. The plan also called for an independent judiciary.
The founders also took pains to establish the relationship between the States. States are required to give “full faith and credit” to the laws, records, contracts, and judicial proceedings of the other States, although Congress may regulate the manner in which the States share records, and define the scope of this clause. States are barred from discriminating against citizens of other States in any way, and cannot enact tariffs against one another. States must also extradite those accused of crimes to other States for trial.
The founders also specified a process by which the Constitution may be amended, and since its ratification, the Constitution has been amended 27 times. In order to prevent arbitrary changes, the process for making amendments is quite onerous. An amendment may be proposed by a two-thirds vote of both Houses of Congress, or, if two-thirds of the States request one, by a convention called for that purpose. The amendment must then be ratified by three-fourths of the State legislatures, or three-fourths of conventions called in each State for ratification. In modern times, amendments have traditionally specified a time frame in which this must be accomplished, usually a period of several years. Additionally, the Constitution specifies that no amendment can deny a State equal representation in the Senate without that State’s consent.
With the details and language of the Constitution decided, the Convention got down to the work of actually setting the Constitution to paper. It is written in the hand of a delegate from Pennsylvania, Gouverneur Morris, whose job allowed him some reign over the actual punctuation of a few clauses in the Constitution. He is also credited with the famous preamble, quoted at the top of this page. On September 17, 1787, 39 of the 55 delegates signed the new document, with many of those who refused to sign objecting to the lack of a bill of rights. At least one delegate refused to sign because the Constitution codified and protected slavery and the slave trade.
Ratification
The process set out in the Constitution for its ratification provided for much popular debate in the States. The Constitution would take effect once it had been ratified by nine of the thirteen State legislatures; unanimity was not required. During the debate over the Constitution, two factions emerged: the Federalists, who supported adoption, and the Anti-Federalists, who opposed it.
James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay set out an eloquent defense of the new Constitution in what came to be called the Federalist Papers. Published anonymously in the newspapers The Independent Journal and The New York Packet under the name Publius between October 1787 and August 1788, the 85 articles that comprise the Federalist Papers remain to this day an invaluable resource for understanding some of the framers’ intentions for the Constitution. The most famous of the articles are No. 10, which warns of the dangers of factions and advocates a large republic, and No. 51, which explains the structure of the Constitution, its checks and balances, and how it protects the rights of the people.
The States proceeded to begin ratification, with some debating more intensely than others. Delaware was the first State to ratify, on December 7, 1787. After New Hampshire became the ninth State to ratify, on June 22, 1788, the Confederation Congress established March 9, 1789 as the date to begin operating under the Constitution. By this time, all the States except North Carolina and Rhode Island had ratified—the Ocean State was the last to ratify on May 29, 1790.
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Understanding the U.S. Constitution
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The Bill of Rights
Date: December 15, 1791
The Conventions of a number of the States, having at the time of their adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added: And as extending the ground of public confidence in the Government, will best ensure the beneficent ends of its institution.
- Preamble to the Bill of Rights
One of the principal points of contention between the Federalists and Anti-Federalists was the lack of an enumeration of basic civil rights in the Constitution. Many Federalists argued, as in Federalist No. 84, that the people surrendered no rights in adopting the Constitution. In several States, however, the ratification debate in some States hinged on the adoption of a bill of rights. The solution was known as the Massachusetts Compromise, in which four States ratified the Constitution but at the same time sent recommendations for amendments to the Congress.
James Madison introduced 12 amendments to the First Congress in 1789. Ten of these would go on to become what we now consider to be the Bill of Rights. One was never passed, while another dealing with Congressional salaries was not ratified until 1992, when it became the 27th Amendment. Based on the Virginia Declaration of Rights, the English Bill of Rights, the writings of the Enlightenment, and the rights defined in the Magna Carta, the Bill of Rights contains rights that many today consider to be fundamental to America.
The First Amendment provides that Congress make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting its free exercise. It protects freedom of speech, the press, assembly, and the right to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
The Second Amendment gives citizens the right to bear arms.
The Third Amendment prohibits the government from quartering troops in private homes, a major grievance during the American Revolution.
The Fourth Amendment protects citizens from unreasonable search and seizure. The government may not conduct any searches without a warrant, and such warrants must be issued by a judge and based on probable cause.
The Fifth Amendment provides that citizens not be subject to criminal prosecution and punishment without due process. Citizens may not be tried on the same set of facts twice and are protected from self-incrimination (the right to remain silent). The amendment also establishes the power of eminent domain, ensuring that private property is not seized for public use without just compensation.
The Sixth Amendment assures the right to a speedy trial by a jury of one’s peers, to be informed of the crimes with which one is charged, and to confront the witnesses brought forward by the government. The amendment also provides the accused the right to compel testimony from witnesses, as well as the right to legal representation.
The Seventh Amendment provides that civil cases preserve the right to trial by jury.
The Eighth Amendment prohibits excessive bail, excessive fines, and cruel and unusual punishments.
The Ninth Amendment states that the list of rights enumerated in the Constitution is not exhaustive, and that the people retain all rights not enumerated.
The Tenth Amendment assigns all powers not delegated to the United States, or prohibited to the States, to either the States or to the people.
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