On September 17, 1787, the American founders signed the U.S. Constitution. The greatest strength of our Bill of Rights and Constitution is that it places limits on government. Constitution Day, as well as every other day, should remind us of that very simple truth. The whole purpose of our founding documents is to protect our rights and establish a rule of law that promotes human flourishing. When we move away from those basic principles we are not advancing but regressing as a nation. It will always be my hope that this nation and its people will fully recognize the purpose of a document that so loudly proclaims that rights are inherent in the people and governmental power is limited.
The Constitution continually thwarts the disruptors of the American ideal. It thwarts those that want to take us backward to a time when tyranny and injustice reigned. It wreaks havoc on those who want to make this country into their own image and for their own agenda.
In these perilous times, these thoughts below are essential ideas for securing liberty and the rule of law.
1) “The President is a servant of the Constitution and not its master. There is nothing explicit or implicit in that instrument which exempts him from a duty the law imposes on all competent human beings in our land.”
—U.S. Senator Sam Ervin (1896 – 1985) during the Watergate hearings. (D-NC)
2) “The problem is whether the American people have loyalty enough, honor enough, patriotism enough, to live up to their own Constitution.”
3) “The Constitution has sheltered us from those who would destroy freedom, but the fortress is incredibly fragile because it is only as strong as our devotion and allegiance.”
4) “Conceived in Grecian thought, strengthened by Christian morality, and stamped inedibly into American political philosophy, the right of the individual against the State is the keystone of our Constitution.”
5) “The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined.”
6) “In questions of power, let no more be said of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.”
7) “The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were based on the premise that government was the great threat to freedom, and the purpose of a constitution was to limit the power of government.”
8) “Our Constitution—like the Declaration of Independence before it—was predicated on a simple truth: One’s liberty, not to mention one’s dignity, was something to be shielded from—not provided by—the State.”
9) “A society in which men and women are morally adrift, ignorant of norms, and intent chiefly upon gratification of appetites, will be a bad society—no matter how many people vote and no matter how liberal its formal constitution may be.”
