Understand "Original Meaning" of United States Constitution
“The people are the natural guardians of the Constitution.”
Federalist Paper #16 says, “The people are the natural guardians of the Constitution.” But the only way to guard the Constitution is to understand it. The people who ratified the Constitution also needed to understand it. The newspaper essays that explained the Constitution to voters later became known as The Federalist Papers. Two hundred and thirty-seven years later, The Federalist Papers are still the very best explanation of meaning the United States Constitution.
My book, The United States Constitution: Annotated with The Federalist Papers in Modern English, is the quickest way to discover the meaning of specific clauses in the U.S. Constitution.
The Table of Contents is the U.S. Constitution. Note that the bold words are the Constitution.
We’ll look at one entry:
Starting on page 27, I have attempted to put every quote from The Federalist Papers that relates to “We, the people of the United States”.
I hope this brief example shows how helpful this annotated U.S. Constitution can be.
This book uses my second "translation" of the Federalist Papers. The Federalist Papers: Modern English Edition Two, to annotate the United States Constitution. This book is not a substitute for reading the Federalist Papers, either the original or one of my translations.
I hope that the Papers' comments about specific clauses will entice the reader to want to learn more by reading all the Papers. They give a full overview of the Founding Fathers' vision and hopes for the United States. Their keen insight into psychology-- individual and group behavior--that is needed in the 21st century more than any time in our history.
I have repeated some paragraphs of the Papers to conform to the structure of the Constitution. The index lists all the Papers and paragraph numbers used in this text. I always put the paragraph numbers in brackets after the Paper number.
Any errors or omissions in this text are entirely mine. As I find them, I will update the book, an advantage of print-on-demand. I appreciate feedback.
Mary E Webster
Mary@Webster.org