View Full Version : Why did the framers put the phrase insure domestic tranquility in the constitution?
nikkicola
Aug 23, 2012, 01:45 PM
Need help
Wondergirl
Aug 23, 2012, 01:55 PM
Have you come up with some ideas? If so, what are they? (Do you know what those words mean?)
joypulv
Aug 23, 2012, 02:56 PM
The framers didn't really discuss the preamble and work on it together. It was more of an afterthought written by Gov. Morris of PA (a delegate on the Committee of Style) at the last minute. It didn't have any real legal meaning. As far as the domestic tranquility phrase, various uprisings had occurred - Shay's Rebellion and some lesser ones in New England - and there was a general tendency for men to take up arms whenever they were dissatisfied with government. And the wording of the preamble as a whole was more positive and less militaristic sounding than the one in the Articles of Confederation, which you could find and read to compare.
(Don't quote me on this. Be sure I am correct, and expect a teacher to ask where you got it.)
Also ask yourself what does 'domestic' mean - the entire country as distinct from other countries, or the individual and his home, or both?
smearcase
Aug 23, 2012, 06:51 PM
Just means to me a nation of laws that protect the citizens and maintain order, including from a military uprising, vigilante, or just plain stomping on the rights of others points of view.