Preamble to the Constitution: Celebrating the Semiquincentennial, Part II

 

image of the US Constitution Preamble from Wikipedia

This is Part II of a monthly series, the way I’m celebrating our country’s 250^th birthday. Last month, in Part I, we went over the Declaration of Independence. This month we’ll begin looking at the US Constitution, covering just the Preamble.

First of all, let’s note that not all countries have a birthday. The US does: July 4, 1776. We chose the date of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, separating the 13 original colonies from Great Britain’s colonial rule.

The Revolutionary War was underway already, begun April 19, 1775, at Lexington and Concord. And it continued until September 3, 1783, nearly 8 ½ years later. By then the country was functioning under a rather loose document, the Articles of Confederation. The new independent colonies were tied together as the states’ league of friendship, a perpetual union, but loosely defined.

Reenactment of the Battle of Lexington and Concord, April 2025,
at Jesse Jones State Park, in Humble, TX.
I played music, in costume, for the celebration, but I wasn’t in the reenactment.

There were, you might be surprised to learn, ten presidents of the United States of America prior to George Washington. But during their terms, the presidency was much weaker, and their administrations not too memorable. The central government, such as it was, did diplomacy and territorial disputes, but couldn’t manage to raise funds, regulate commerce (including between and among the states), or get delegates to assemble to work out issues.

To read the full article, FOLLOW LINK TO SUBSTACK.