"We, the People of the United States": The Birth of an American Identity, September 1787

Abstract

In 1776, thirteen colonies joined together to wage a war for indepen dence; from this struggle thirteen independent states emerged in 1783. Although we of the revolutionary generation as the first citizens of the United States of America, they were more likely to of themselves as Marylanders, New Yorkers, or Georgians. Their first constitution, the Articles of Confederation (adopted by Congress in 1777 and ratified by all the states in 1781), reinforced these local identi ties, for it joined together thirteen sovereign states in a league of friend ship rather than a genuine union. By 1787, a significant number of politi cal leaders, including George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison, believed this limited national government could not stand up to the challenges fac ing the Republic. They pressed for a con vention to reexamine the Confederation government, and the Congress reluctantly agreed. In the end, the delegates who gathered in Philadelphia in the summer of 1787 decided not to amend the Articles but to create a stronger, more broadly em powered national government. Yet even at the convention, not everyone shared Al exander Hamilton's willingness to think continentally. The rough draft of the new constitution they produced and printed on August 6,1787, reveals the limits of their American identity, for its original preamble read simply, but tellingly, We the People of the States of New-Hampshire, Mas sachusetts, Rhode-Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New-York, New-Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North-Carolina, South-Carolina, and Georgia, do ordain, declare and establish the following Constitution for the Government of Ourselves and our Posterity. Fortunately, the task of editing and polishing the convention's handiwork fell to an ardent nationalist, the brilliant Pennsylvania del egate Gouverneur Morris. A remarkable stylist and an astute politician, Morris realized that the preamble ought to reflect the unity this consti tution promised. It ought to signal that the people, not the states, were the source of authority and legitimacy for their national government. And, finally, the preamble ought to boldly set out the many advantages to the people of a new and, as the delegates put it, energetic govern ment. The delegates saw the wisdom of this approach, and approved the revisions on September 15. Thus, when the Constitution appeared in its final form, on September 17, 1787, its preamble began We, the People of the United States?and an American identity was born.