The US Constitution is famous for good reason, as the foundation of the longest-lived constitutional republic in history. Unfortunately its genius is in many ways ignored today by those who claim to serve, support, interpret and act upon its dictates. The secret of the Constitution is not in the powers it awards to the US government, but in the powers that it denies.
The Constitution’s moral basis is that every human innately deserves the right to self-determination and freedom. The ability to learn, act, share ideas, build, worship, defend one’s own person and property, to reap the rewards of ingenuity and hard work and even Luck are protected by the Constitution as long as the rights of others to the same are not infringed. The Founding Fathers by and large were keen students of history both ancient and modern. From the Old Testament and the Magna Carta to the laws of Sparta and Athens, from lawgivers such as Moses and Hammurabi, and with the political philosophy of John Locke, Thucidides, Adam Smith, and others they wrestled a system of government to be administered by imperfect men.
The 10th Amendment in the Bill of Rights specifies explicitly that the rights of the government are small and limited, but the rights of the people on whom the government’s authority rests are not.
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