How did the American theory of government differ from the British idea?
A preamble is an introduction to an official document, which spells out its purposes and philosophy. The Constitution's Preamble reads:
"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."
The first three words of the Preamble are significant: the Framers believed that sovereignty, the ultimate source of the government's legitimacy and power, flowed upward from the citizens.