Articles Of Confederation And The Preamble Of The Constitution

Submitted By mrdgamer
Words: 662
Pages: 3

Manasseh Dickson
Sept.30.2014
Junior English
Period. 7

Early American: Founding Fathers

The Articles of the Confederation and the Preamble of the Constitution are documents of the United States where it states the plans of the nation. These two documents are written differently by form, meaning, and the audience that these documents addresses to. The Preamble is suppose to be a refinement to the Articles if so what are the improvements that were made?

The structure of these two documents differ in many ways one however is the length of the documents incredibly stands out. The confirmation of this is in the following quotes starting with the Articles that proclaimed “To all to whom these Presents shall come, we the undersigned Delegates of the States...Articles of Confederation and perpetual Union between the states of...and Georgia.” (Line 1-12) whereas the Preamble asserted “We the people of the United States,” (line 1). This is so simple transitioning from these long opening paragraphs to We the people is a huge eye opener. The most likely reason it is written this way is to show the powerful meaning of its introduction to the audience in the most simplified way. The details in the Articles convey in the quotes “The stile of the this Confederacy shall be the United States of America... or any other pretense whatever.” (Line 13-31) compared to the Preambles quote “in Order to form a more perfect Union...do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.” (Line 2-9). Again the shortness of the document is tremendous making it short also leads down to getting to the point of this document and what it is stating. This part of it cuts most of the long explanation of states retaining their sovereignty to “...A more perfect Union,” taking it into a more straightforward way of what the idealists want into this nation. The structure of these two documents differ in various ways and the length between the Preamble and the Articles stands out the most.

The connotation between these two documents have some similarities of the basic structure of national defense and security of the peoples’ rights but one major difference is the unification of the states altogether. Taking into consideration the fact that the Articles quote state “...Delegates of the States..” ( Line 2-3) whereas the Preamble quotes “We the people of the United States.” (Line 1). This addresses differently between the documents such as the Articles only speaks to the states were listed while the Preamble speaks to the people in a whole. Instead of the delegates or