The Constitution was designed to control the government, not to control the people.
Key 8 Analysis
The United States Constitution was wisely designed to define, restrict, and control the powers of the national government. By the same token the state constitutions should be written to control the state governments. Each constitution is the “job description“ or the “boss“ of the level of government to which it pertains. Thomas Jefferson recognized that the function of the Constitution was to control the government officials. Only in this way can our rights be protected. He said:
“It would be a dangerous delusion were a confidence in the men of our choice to silence our fears for the safety of our rights… Confidence is everywhere the parent of despotism. Free government is founded in jealousy, and not in confidence. It is jealousy and not confidence which prescribes limited constitutions, to bind down those whom we are obliged to trust with power… Our Constitution has accordingly fixed the limits to which, and no further, our confidence may go… In questions of power, then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.” –Thomas Jefferson: Draft Kentucky Resolutions, 1798. ME 17:388
We believe that we could turn this nation back towards freedom if every American understood this one important Key. “The Constitution was designed to control the government, not to control the people.”
Quotes
“The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government — lest it come to dominate our lives and interests.” Patrick Henry
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If the sense in which the constitution was accepted and ratified by the Nation…be not the guide in expounding it, there can be no security for a faithful exercise of its powers. James Madison
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When the people fear the government, you have tyranny. When the government fears the people you have freedom. Thomas Jefferson 1792
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The greatest danger to American freedom is a government that ignores the Constitution. Thomas Jefferson
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Free government is founded in jealousy, not confidence. It is jealousy and not confidence which prescribes limited constitutions, to bind those we are obliged to trust with power…In questions of power, then, let no more be heard of confidence in man but bind him down from mischief with the Chains of the Constitution. Thomas Jefferson Virginia & Kentucky Resolves Nov. 10, 1798
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On every question of construction, carry yourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed. Thomas Jefferson June 12, 1823 letter to Justice Wm Johnson
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The most important purpose of the United States Constitution is to confine, limit, restrict and control the powers of the Federal Government. David W. New (Attorney at Law in the D.C. area.)
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