Back to Markets
Stocks● Neutral
Why the Declaration and Constitution Are Not the Same
The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution serve different purposes. One limits government. The other empowers it. Confusing them distorts how we understand American liberty.
Continue with
Some people seem to think the Constitution of 1787 is pretty much the same thing as the Declaration of Independence. They're wrong.
The Declaration, written in 1776, announced a break from British rule and laid out a philosophical foundation: that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, and that people have unalienable rights. The Constitution, drafted eleven years later, created a specific framework for a federal government – one that could tax, raise armies, and regulate commerce.
The confusion matters because the two documents point in different directions. The Declaration is a statement of principle, a promise that government exists to serve the individual. The Constitution is a set of operating instructions for a government that, in practice, often does the opposite.
Thomas Jefferson, who wrote the Declaration, was in France during the Constitutional Convention. He later expressed concerns about the document's lack of a bill of rights and its concentration of power. The Constitution's supporters, including James Madison and Alexander Hamilton, argued that a stronger central government was necessary for the union to survive.