Five people worked together as the Committee of Style to polish and refine the 52-word Preamble, a paragraph that provided the reasons and purposes behind the creation of the Constitution. In fact, one of the greatest phrases of the Constitution comes from the Preamble: “We the People.” Could any other wording express the emotions and the meaning behind the four-page Constitution better than these three words?
We think it can—and we think you can do it! We want you to tweet the 52-word Preamble in 140 characters or less.
From today through September 17—the 225th anniversary of the ratification of the Constitution—we’re asking you to condense the meaning of the Preamble in a bite-sized tweet.
On Constitution Day, September 17, the Archivist of the United States will choose the winner, who will receive a pocket-size Constitution from the Foundation for the National Archives.
The rules are simple: shorten the Preamble down to as few words (or letters) as possible while retaining the Preamble’s meaning, then tweet us your response using the hashtag #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 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.”
There’s no limit to how many times you post, and we promise that there will be no actual abridging of the original Preamble—this is just a way to think about one of our most important documents, and maybe even feel some of the pressure that the Founding Fathers felt when faced with putting quill to parchment.
So pull that $10 dollar bill out of your pocket, gaze upon Committee of Style member Alexander Hamilton for inspiration, put your finger to the screen, and start tweeting!