Constitution 225: Tweet the Preamble

We think it can—and we think you can do it! We want you to tweet the 52-word Preamble in 140 characters or less.

From today through September 17—the 225th anniversary of the ratification of the Constitution—we’re asking you to condense the meaning of the Preamble in a bite-sized tweet.

On Constitution Day, September 17, the Archivist of the United States will choose the winner, who will receive a pocket-size Constitution from the Foundation for the National Archives.

The rules are simple: shorten the Preamble down to as few words (or letters) as possible while retaining the Preamble’s meaning, then tweet us your response using the hashtag #Preamble.

“We the People of the United States, in Order to

form a more perfect Union, establish Justice,

insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the

common defence, promote the general Welfare,

and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves

and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this

Constitution for the United States of America.”

There’s no limit to how many times you post, and we promise that there will be no actual abridging of the original Preamble—this is just a way to think about one of our most important documents, and maybe even feel some of the pressure that the Founding Fathers felt when faced with putting quill to parchment.

So pull that $10 dollar bill out of your pocket, gaze upon Committee of Style member Alexander Hamilton for inspiration, put your finger to the screen, and start tweeting!

Where this page came from

This page was imported from National Archives, Pieces of History. Published on the National Archives' Pieces of History blog and, as a work of the United States government, in the public domain; pictures credited elsewhere are left out.

Nobody has written it yet — it is the source material at a new address, which is why search engines are asked to skip it and why no one earns from it. It is up for grabs: take it on, and it is yours to rewrite and to earn from.