History of United States

From: THE MUNICIPALIST, by Maurice A Richter 1859

"Preamble. We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, 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."

Preambles and prefaces are generally considered unprofitable reading, especially by ladies; but you must make an exception with this preface. It closes the epoch in the history of our country from 1643 to 1787, which may be termed the time of incubation of our present Union.

After the colonists had opened the path for European culture through the primitive American forests, erected towns where be fore stood wigwams, subdued powerful Indian tribes, and had in those struggles for life and independence acquired the skill of self- government, so easily lost in luxury and affluence, they felt the necessity of a government of their own, and a union of their colonial forces. Many attempts were made for this purpose, during the period I have indicated, as you know from the history of the United States. When the right time came to strike the blow, the right men were at the head of the public affairs to secure success. As the colonists always managed their municipal affairs them selves, under English governors, the question after the liberation was to give a proper form and place to that part of the public affairs which belong to a nation, and which were, with the usual haughty, lordly spirit of a monarch, withheld by the English crown.

If you throw a glance at the history of the world, you will dis cover that it is this kind of public business which has caused the great revolutions and struggles for freedom. The ancient Greeks managed their municipal affairs as well as we ours; but they never succeeded, although repeatedly trying it, in organizing the national business well. They deserved, on this account, hardly the name of a nation, and became therefore an easy prey to their monarchical adversaries. The success of the Romans, on the other hand, resulted from the strong consolidation of the national affairs in Rome, similar to that of France in Paris. To set this business right, the Germans revolted in 1848. The Italians are, it is said, at the eve of a revolution for the same purpose. When it required, in the North American colonies, almost two hundred years to realize a free, independent, stable government, among men who were comparatively free, at least in regard to the management of their municipal affairs, how doubtful must be such revolutions among people who, like the Spaniards or Italians, or even the Germans, have been for centuries subject to strong monarchical rulers!

The colonies had, as early as 1778, adopted the appellation, "UNITED STATES OF AMERICA." Still the present constitution, although framed by a convention composed of delegates chosen by the legislatures of the states, was ratified and adopted by the people: hence the words, "We, the people" that is, the aggregate of families, forming society and nations. It makes, indeed, but little difference whether this act of the free, independent people is called a sovereign act or not. A nation, as such, is master of its destiny. There is no society without a certain rule or organization. Cannibals, also, obey their chiefs. The family state is the beginning of social organization, and requires it for the purposes of support and education. It is, within its domestic limits, as independent as a nation within her political boundaries.

That the people, by their votes, and not by the states, have adopted the constitution, is an important fact in regard to the validity of the covenant, because on this fact, not the state governments, not Congress, but only the people, have to decide. Mind that no single state can leave the Union without the permission of the whole people or nation.

The preamble expresses the main objects of the constitution. First, A MORE PERFECT UNION. This was, as we have seen, most desirable. The new state governments cleaved with the same obstinacy to the national business as the English government, from the fear that Congress might become too powerful; from which cause sprung up a separate party, the republicans, opposing the federalists. This fear is unfounded, if we concede to Congress but national political business. You must remember that the business managed by states or Congress is called political or public business, which I shall, in a separate letter, endeavor clearly to explain. This Union has now been, after much trouble and a bloody war, achieved, by adopting the present constitution, which gives to Congress the national business, leaving to the states the municipal, and to society, or the people at large, the free, non-political affairs to manage.

The declared aim of the constitution is, further, to ESTABLISH JUSTICE. This is the supreme and ultimate object of all political organizations. St. Paul, as you know from his first letter to Timothy, had already said, "The law [or state] is not made for the righteous, but for the lawless" etc. This means: if men would always act right, there would be, of course, no need of states, Congress, courts, sheriffs, troops, jails, etc. But this not being the case, we have to organize society, in order to establish and realize justice, on account of the lawless, and thus INSURE DOMESTIC TRANQUILITY and PROMOTE THE GENERAL WELFARE. On this account, Congress has also to take care for the COMMON DEFENSE. It is a part and the consequence of the establishment of justice, and its execution, at home and with regard to foreign nations. If all this is well done, the BLESSINGS OF LIBERTY will most certainly be secured to ourselves and our posterity; while the reverse, as injustice and lawlessness, will sow the seeds of discord, civil commotions, general misery, and despotism. The blessings of liberty consist chiefly in being un-subject that is, in full possession of the rights of self-government, so that man is not hindered in regard to his industrial pursuits, culture, and management of his public affairs. No organic law, that I am acquainted with, protects people in this regard better than our federal constitution. For such a rational liberty, however, very few men comparatively are, yet prepared. The majority mistake liberty for licentiousness.

The men who framed this constitution could hardly have introduced it by a better preamble. It shows best what a clear and practical conception they had of their task. They have erected a monument of their wisdom, which, although made for their time, arid the actual wants of their society, composed of very heterogeneous elements (Americans, Indians, Europeans, and Africans), is, notwithstanding, a perfect pattern of an organic law for all states and nations, as we shall often have opportunity to notice. I promise you that you will admire it the more, the longer you live.

Biographies:

Asbury Dickins, U.S. official, was born in North Carolina, July 29, 1780; son of the Rev. John Dickins, founder of the Methodist book concern. He removed with his parents to New York and thence to Philadelphia, Pa., where he was educated. He spent several years in Europe. He was a clerk in the U.S. treasury department, Washington, D.C., 1816-33, and was acting secretary of the treasury from June 21 to Aug. 8, 1831, during the interim between the resignation of Secretary Ingham and the appointment of Lewis McLane to the portfolio. He was transferred to the state department as chief clerk and served in that office under Secretaries McLane and Forsyth from Aug. 8, 1833, to Dec. 13, 1836, when he was elected secretary of the U.S. senate, serving till July 16, 1861. He died in Washington, D.C., Oct. 23, 1861.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

William Hooper, signer of the Declaration of Independence, was born in Boston, Mass., June 28, 1742 (n. s.); son of the Rev. William and Mary (Dennie) Hooper, and grandson of Robert and Mary (Jaffray) Hooper of Edenmouth, parish of Ednam, near Kelso, Scotland. William studied under the celebrated John Lovell, who prepared him for college. He was graduated at Harvard in 1760 and studied law under James Otis. In 1767 he settled in practice at Wilmington, N.C. He took an active part with the government against the "Regulators," who were defeated at Alamance, May 16, 1771; represented the Wilmington district in the house of commons in 1773; was one of the five projectors of a provisional congress which met in New Bern, Aug. 25, 1774; and represented the state of North Carolina in the Continental congress, 1774-77. He was speaker of the Hillsborough and Halifax, N.C., conventions in 1776, and wrote an eloquent address to the British parliament. He signed the Declaration of Independence of July 4, 1776: served on important committees, and resigned his seat in congress in 1777 in order to earn money to support his family. He was forced to leave Wilmington upon the occupation of the city by the British, but returned in 1781 after the evacuation and removed the following year to Hillsborough. He was a Federal judge in the New York and Massachusetts boundary commission dispute in 1786, and retired from public life in 1787. In the fall of 1767 he married Anne, daughter of High-Sheriff Thomas and Barbara (Murray) Clark, of Wilmington, N.C., and sister of Col. and Brevet-Brig.-Gen. Thomas Clark, of the American army, who is mentioned in the war records at Washington, D.C., "in the list of officers of the late war who continued to the end thereof." They had three children: William, who married Helen Hogg; Thomas, unmarried; and Elizabeth, who married Henry Hyrne Watters and left no children. William "the signer" died in Hillsborough, N.C.. Oct. 14, 1790.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Stephen Hopkins, signer of the Declaration of Independence, was born in Chapumiscook, Scituate, R.I., March 7, 1707; son of William and Ruth (Wilkinson) Hopkins and great grandson of Thomas Hopkins who came to America with Roger Williams and was one of the first settlers in Providence Plantations in 1640. He was an elder brother of William Hopkins, a shipping merchant, and of Esek Hopkins, commander-in-chief of the U.S. navy, 1775-78. His family were wealthy farmers and he was brought up on the farm. He was town clerk of Scituate, 1732-41; justice of the peace, 1736; president of the town council, 1735-42; justice of the court of common pleas, 1736-39; representative in the general assembly of Rhode Island fourteen terms, 1732-52, and 1770-75: speaker of the house, 1741-43; assistant justice of the supreme court of the state, 1747-51; chief justice, 1751-55; delegate to the Colonial congress at Albany, N.Y. 1754 55; delegate to the Colonial congress at Boston, Mass., 1757, and governor of Rhode Island, 1755-57, 1758-62, 1763-65, 1767-68. He was a delegate to the Continental congress, 1774-76, and as a member of that body was a signer of the Declaration of Independence of July 4, 1776, on which occasion he remarked: "My hand trembles but my heart does not." He was a member of the Rhode Island council of war, 1776-78 ; a trustee of Brown university, 1764-85, and chancellor of that institution, 1764-85. He laid out the town of Providence in streets and lots in 1731 and made the place his residence, engaging in shipbuilding and as a merchant. At the Albany convention he was a member of the committee that drafted the plan of colonial union adopted by the convention, but rejected by the colonies and by the crown. In 1765 he was one of the committee to draw up the instructions presented to the general assembly, relative to the stamp act. These resolutions went farther than those offered to the House of Burgesses of Virginia, prepared by Patrick Henry, as the resolution rejected by that body was adopted by the general assembly of Rhode Island, the resolution reciting: "We are not bound to yield obedience to any law or ordinance designed to impose any internal taxation whatever upon us, other than the laws and ordinances of Rhode Island." In the Continental congress he was a member of the naval committee. He had for his colleague in the first and second sessions Samuel Ward, his political opponent in the annual contests for governor of Rhode Island, (1755-64), and to effect a reconciliation with whom he declined further to be a candidate after 1764. His colleague in the third session was William Ellery. He served as a member of the committee of safety of Providence during the Revolution; and as delegate from Rhode Island to the conventions to promote the common defences of the borders of the New England states, and presided over the meetings at Providence, R.I., in 1776, and Springfield, Mass., in 1777. He was a delegate to the Continental congress in 1778, and was a member of the committee that drafted the Articles of Confederation. He founded the town library of Providence in 1750. It was burned in 1758, and re-established by him the following year. He is the author of: The Grievances of the American Colonies Candidly Examined (1765); History of The Planting and Growth of Providence (Gazette, 1765). William Eaton Foster published in 1884, Stephen Hopkins, a Rhode Island Statesman. He died in Providence, R.I., July 13, 1785.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Francis Hopkinson, signer of the Declaration of Independence, was born in Philadelphia, Pa., Sept. 21, 1737; son of Thomas and Mary (Johnson) Hopkinson. His father (born, 1709, died, 1751), a native of London, England, emigrated to America and settled in Philadelphia in 1731, where he was a public court official, member of the provincial council, an incorporator of the Philadelphia Library company, charter member and trustee of the College of Philadelphia, and first president of the Philosophical society. Francis was graduated at the College of Philadelphia, A.B., in 1757, A.M., in 1760, and received an honorary A.M. degree from the College of New Jersey in 1763. He was admitted to the bar in 1761; and was librarian and secretary of the Philadelphia Library company, 1764-65. He visited Europe in 1766, with the view of an appointment as commisioner of customs for North America, but failed to secure the office. He retured to Philadelphia in 1767, and practised law and at the same time conducted a store. He was a member of the American Philosophical society, 1768-91; a director and secretary of the Library company, 1771-73; collector of customs at Newcastle, 1772-76, when he was removed as a disloyalist. He removed to Bordentown and was a member of the provincial councilor New Jersey, 1774-76. He was a delegate from New Jersey to the Continental congress, 1776-77. He was on the committee that drafted the Articles of Confederation, voted in favor of the independence of the colonies and signed the Declaration of Independence of July 4, 1776. He was chief of the navy department of the confederation, and treasurer of the Continental loan office. He was judge of the admiralty appointed by the state of Pennsylvania, 1779-89, and first judge of the U.S. district court of Pennsylvania, 1790-91. He was a trustee of the University of Pennsylvania, 1778-91, and received the honorary degree of LL.D. from that institution in 1790. He was married to Ann, daughter of Joseph Borden, of Bordentown, N.J. He is the author of: The Treaty, a poem published soon after he was secretary at a treaty with the Indians in 1761; The Battle of the Kegs, a mock-heroic ballad descriptive of the attempt to destroy the British shipping at Philadelphia in 1777; The New Roof: a Song of Federal Mechanics, besides political writings including: The Pretty Story (1774); The Prophecy (1776); The Political Catechism (1777), and essays: The Typographical Mode of Conducting a Quarrel, and Thoughts on Diseases of the Mind. See The Miscellaneous Essays and Occasional Writings of Fraacis Hopkinson (1792). He died in Philadelphia, Pa., May 9, 1791.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

History of United States

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