Golden Apple; Silver Frame

Constitutional Writes ^ | Apr 24, 2012 | Jim O'Neill

[Ray76]

The US Constitution is much more important, and in much greater danger than most people realize. I will discuss both issues in this article.

Some people believe, and I am one of them, that there is one short passage in our founding documents that encapsulates, enshrines, and defines what is so unique and important about the US Constitution, and the United States of America. Oddly enough it is not to be found in the Constitution at all – it is in “The Declaration of Independence.”

I am talking about the preamble to the Declaration – specifically the first sentence. Without that one sentence the US Constitution loses most, if not all of its moral authority, and the United States becomes a shadow of itself.

Using a biblical reference, Abraham Lincoln compared it to “a golden apple” that the US Constitution was made to preserve and protect, like a silver picture or frame. “The picture was made for the apple–not the apple for the picture,” he said. That is, it was Lincoln’s opinion that the US Constitution’s purpose was to preserve and protect the principles outlined in the first sentence of the Declaration’s preamble. (”A word aptly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.” Proverbs 28:11).

Progressive icon Woodrow Wilson ... wrote, “If you want to understand the real Declaration, do not repeat the preface [preamble].”

By taking out the Declaration’s preamble one is left with what is largely a list of forgotten grievances against a long-dead king. The “golden apple” is turned into a tin prune. It is the Declaration’s preamble that gives the Declaration (and Constitution) their life, vigor and meaning. It is the Declaration’s preamble, and especially its first sentence, that make both the Declaration and Constitution timeless and invaluable documents.

[Ray76]

Related resources:

Fragment on the Constitution and the Union, The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, ed. Roy P. Basler, volume 4, 168-169. http://quod.lib.umich.edu/l/lincoln/lincoln4?rgn=main;view=fulltext;q1=March+5%2C+1861#4_168_4

Woodrow Wilson Address to the Jefferson Club of Los Angeles, Classics of American Political and Constitutional Thought: Reconstruction to the present, (Scott J. Hammond, Kevin R. Hardwick, Howard Leslie Lubert), 323-324. books.google.com/books?id=-TiAirQlOYoC&lpg=PA323&pg=PA323#v=onepage&q&f=false

[latina4dubya]

i like this... will share this with my sons as we do our Constitution Literacy course...