For America250, who principally wrote the Preamble to the United States Constitution?

Gouverneur Morris principally wrote the Preamble to the United States Constitution. Morris served as a delegate from Pennsylvania at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787 and chaired the Committee of Style, which prepared the Constitution's final wording.

The Preamble is the Constitution's introductory statement. It begins with “We the People of the United States” and lists six purposes: forming a more perfect Union, establishing justice, ensuring domestic tranquility, providing for the common defense, promoting the general welfare, and securing liberty.

Morris did not write the entire Constitution. The Convention debated and approved the Articles, while the Committee of Style edited the document into its final form. James Madison was a major architect of the constitutional plan, but he is not credited as the principal author of the Preamble. The Constitution was signed on September 17, 1787, and took effect after New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify it in 1788.