6 purposes of government that are defined in the preamble

1. To form a more perfect union than was provided by the watered-down Articles of Confederation.

2. To establish a superior layer of justice, above the state court systems, which were all the states had under the Articles.

3. To ensure the tranquility of the countryside is not interrupted by armed gangs of displaced farmers intent on shutting down the courts and legislatures, particulary if they are led by descendents of Daniel Shays.

4. To provide for the common defense of all the states in the face of countries like France, Spain and Britian who occupied postions of the North American continent and who seemed to be at perpetual war with one another.

5. To promote the general welfare of all Americans, as opposed to the specific welfare of favored individuals or politically-powerful groups.

6. and to secure the blessings of liberty, if the American people can be bothered to figure out what they are, to the citizens of 1788 as well as their posterity.