In Order To Form A More Perfect Union

"I have been happy... in believing that... whatever follies we may be led into as to foreign nations, we shall never give up our Union, the last anchor of our hope, and that alone which is to prevent this heavenly country from becoming an arena of gladiators." --Thomas Jefferson, letter to Elbridge Gerry, 1797

By Douglas V. Gibbs

The Constitution was not written primarily to protect our rights and property, but to form a more perfect union. In order for the new United States to survive, the union needed to be protected by a federal government with more power than the one that existed under the Articles of Confederation.

The Founding Fathers understood, however, that by creating a more centralized federal government, the potential for it to become a tyranny existed. Therefore, the Constitution was written in such a way as to protect our rights and property from the government. Specifically, the federal government was to be limited in authority to only the enumerated powers granted herein the Constitution.

The powers of the federal government all are specifically for protecting the union, and nothing more. As per the Tenth Amendment, whatever powers the States did not grant to the federal government the States kept for themselves. State sovereignty remained important, and the States were not about to give the new federal government too much power so that it may rule over them.

The States let the federal government exist, and they can shut it down, too, if they so wish.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary