1787 - Constitution Day - 2010...and beyond?

223 years ago, September 17th, 1787, liberty and freedom were given the means to be defended; 223 years later your help is needed to defend their defender.

The only way the Constitution, and your liberty and freedom, can truly be defended, is if you, We The People, bother to learn and understand it and the ideas it is based upon.

One of the best sites I've ever found for doing just that, is "The Founders Constitution", from the University of Chicago and the Liberty Press. Each clause of the Constitution is presented as the Preamble is below, with links to the materials and ideas which the Founding Fathers had in their minds when they wrote it, as well as the arguments for and against that clause by the Federalists & Anti-Federalists during the ratification debates, and also early Supreme Court decisions pertaining to it, followed by commentary by Supreme Court Justice and constitutional scholar, Joseph Story.

Have a look... your liberty and freedom depend upon it.

Preamble

We 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 the Blessings
of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish
this Constitution for the United States of America.

1.	John Locke, Second Treatise, § 131, 1689
2.	William Blackstone, Commentaries 1:157, 1765
3.	Virginia Declaration of Rights, secs. 2--3, 12 June 1776
4.	Declaration of Independence, 4 July 1776
5.	Vermont Constitution of 1777, Preamble
6.	Vermont Constitution of 1786, Preamble
7.	Records of the Federal Convention
8.	James Wilson, Pennsylvania Ratifying Convention, 11 Dec. 1787
9.	Luther Martin, Genuine Information, 1788
10.	James Madison, Federalist, no. 37, 233--39, 11 Jan. 1788
11.	Charles Pinckney, South Carolina House of Representatives, 16 Jan. 1788
12.	Brutus, no. 12, 7 Feb. 1788
13.	Alexander Hamilton, Federalist, no. 84, 578--79, 28 May 1788
14.	Patrick Henry, Virginia Ratifying Convention, 4 June 1788
15.	Debate in North Carolina Ratifying Convention, 24 July 1788
16.	A Native of Virginia, Observations upon the Proposed Plan of Federal Government, 1788
17.	House of Representatives, Amendments to the Constitution, 14 Aug. 1789
18.	Martin v. Hunter's Lessee
19.	McCulloch v. Maryland
20.	James Monroe, Views of the President of the United States on the Subject of Internal Improvements, 4 May 1822
21.	Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution, 1:§§ 459, 462--63, 469--70, 471--76, 482--86, 489, 493--97, 500--501, 506, 1833
	SEE ALSO:

BTW, as an asnide, did you notice that Google, who puts a special clever background image to celebrate everything from the anniversary of Pac-Man to Arbor day... has nothing for Constitution Day? Shouldn't be surprising I suppose... but it's in good company, they didn't do anything for Easter either.