As Trump Celebrates 'Our Beloved Constitution' So Should 'We the People'

Last week, President Donald Trump marked the 230^th Anniversary of our Constitution with the following remarks before the United Nations General Assembly:

In America, we do not seek to impose our way of life on anyone, but rather to let it shine as an example for everyone to watch. This week gives our country a special reason to take pride in that example. We are celebrating the 230th anniversary of our beloved Constitution — the oldest constitution still in use in the world today.

This timeless document has been the foundation of peace, prosperity, and freedom for the Americans and for countless millions around the globe whose own countries have found inspiration in its respect for human nature, human dignity, and the rule of law.

The greatest in the United States Constitution is its first three beautiful words. They are: “We the people.”

Generations of Americans have sacrificed to maintain the promise of those words, the promise of our country, and of our great history. In America, the people govern, the people rule, and the people are sovereign. I was elected not to take power, but to give power to the American people, where it belongs.

In celebration of our beloved Constitution, “We the People” should re-read and contemplate the enduring words of both our Constitution and our Declaration of Independence, which together form the basis for our continuing liberty and prosperity.

These two founding documents serve as a constant reminder of the sacred oath that our Constitution requires and that the U.S. Congress has ordained for every "individual elected or appointed to an office of honor or profit in the civil service or uniformed services":

“that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.”

Apropos the three words in our Constitution highlighted last week by President Trump, “We the People,” the following words in our Declaration begin with the same first word: “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.”

Ever wonder what Thomas Jefferson meant in 1776 when he penned the words, “pursuit of Happiness”? In the first American dictionary published by Noah Webster in 1806, the word “happiness” is defined as “blessedness, content, good fortune.” In the same dictionary, Noah Webster defined the word “blessedness” as “happiness, content, joy, holiness.”

Based on these contemporaneous dictionary definitions by America’s most famous expert on our American English language, it is apparent that the three words in our Declaration of Independence, “pursuit of Happiness,” were synonymous with, “pursuit of Blessedness.”

Likewise, our first President, George Washington, concluded his first annual address to Congress by focusing on “blessings”: “The welfare of our country is the great object to which our cares and efforts ought to be directed, and I shall derive great satisfaction from a cooperation with you in the pleasing though arduous task of insuring to our fellow citizens the blessings which they have a right to expect from a free, efficient, and equal government.”

In that same speech, President Washington admonished his “Fellow Citizens of the Senate and House of Representative” that, “To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace. . . . A free people ought not only to be armed, but disciplined; to which end a uniform and well-digested plan is requisite,” while encouraging Congress “to discriminate the spirit of liberty from that of licentiousness — cherishing the first, avoiding the last — and uniting a speedy but temperate vigilance against encroachments, with an inviolable respect to the laws.”

We should all constantly thank our Creator for the unalienable rights enshrined in our Declaration of Independence, and for the Constitution that for 230 years has served to protect these unalienable rights against encroachments. May God continue to bless our fellow citizens in the House of Representative and the Senate (including our Vice President), our President, our fellow citizens of the Judiciary, and most importantly, “We the People.”

Joseph E. Schmitz served as a foreign policy and national security advisor to Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign. The opinions expressed in this article are his personal opinions. Schmitz served as Inspector General of the Department of Defense from 2002-2005 and is now a Partner in the law firm Schmitz & Socarras LLP. He graduated with distinction from the U.S. Naval Academy, earned his J.D. degree from Stanford Law School, and is author of "The Inspector General Handbook: Fraud, Waste, Abuse, and Other Constitutional ‘Enemies, Foreign and Domestic.’" Read more reports from Joseph E. Schmitz — Click Here Now.