the Blessings of Liberty . . .

  The United STATES of America . . .

  Why does every generation need reminding that ours is a "federation of free and independent states"?

  A group of independent states got together (convened) and in agreement, they created a federation among themselves.  They agreed to be bound together and protected by this federation, but only in common needs they could not handle as well individually.

  In the vision granted by wisdom from above, people in the states knew they needed to band together for some purposes, making themselves stronger together than they could be acting separately, even in concert.
  Any inter-state agreements may have been good, but they recognized their need for a "better" union for common needs and goals.  So, in order to form a more perfect union of their efforts they agreed to federate themselves.
  Of course, to "form a more perfect union" was not the end result for which they met, but for the blessings that such a federating could bring them all: establishing Justice, insuring domestic Tranquility (peace in their homelands), providing a greater ability to defend themselves than their individual mililtias could provide, and unarguably the most important objective, to "secure the Blessings of Liberty" for themselves and their children.
  For these purposes, our Fathers created, ordained, and established the "Constitution for the United STATES of America."


  Then, they wrote the design of our federation of states, describing the three branches our government would take, the way the branches would "check and balance" each other, and the areas in which they were authorized to act on behalf of the member States.
  To assure that future generations would never have reason to get a wrong idea that the federated government was "in charge" of everything pertaining to this land, in their wisdom, they appended a list of 10 "amendments" to this new Constitution.  In them they restated "God-given" rights and freedoms which could not be taken away from the people by this federation nor by any State.
  The last of these ten is the most telling: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."  Representatives of the convened States wanted all future generations to know that this indeed is a federation, empowered by the states themselves and intending to delegate to the more perfect union ONLY certain specific authority the branches needed to carry out the purposes of establishing justice, insuring domestic peace, providing a defense against common enemies, and securing the marvelous blessings of LIBERTY for all of us who have so far succeeded them.


  We need to burn these ideas into our minds, and to the minds of our children and their children, else, continually, they will be taken from us.


http://constitutionus.com/