Law of the land

Statement:

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.

Artifacts/Facts:

 This statement is the preamble to the Constitution of the United States.  This document is the core for all laws in the nation. 

The Constitution of the United States is an agreement between its citizens that establishes the branches of government, their duties, and restrictions.

Since its initial ratification by the states, there have been twenty-seven amendments to the Constitution.

Declaring right to be free

Statement: 

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, . . .

Artifacts/Facts:

This statement is the beginning of the second paragraph of the Declaration of Indenpendence, written in congress July 4, 1776.

Original intent

Statement:

In the name of God, Amen. We, whose names are underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord King James, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, defender of the Faith, etc.

Having undertaken, for the Glory of God, and advancements of the Christian faith and honor of our King and Country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the Northern parts of Virginia, do by these presents, solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God, and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic; for our better ordering, and preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions, and offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the colony; unto which we promise all due submission and obedience.

In witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names at Cape Cod the 11th of November, in the year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord King James, of England, France, and Ireland, the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth, 1620

Artifacts/Facts:

The above is the full text of the Mayflower Compact.  The Pilgrims intent in settling the land that became the United States was to found a community for the glory of God.