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.
In Republics the great danger is that the majority may not sufficiently respect the rights of the minority.
The planter the farmer the mechanic and the laborer... form the great body of the people of the United States they are the bone and sinew of the country men who love liberty and desire nothing but equal rights and equal laws.
One great object of the Constitution was to restrain majorities from oppressing minorities or encroaching upon their just rights.
Government itself is founded upon the great doctrine of the consent of the governed and has its cornerstone in the memorable principle that men are endowed with inalienable rights.
The Framers of the Bill of Rights did not purport to 'create' rights. Rather they designed the Bill of Rights to prohibit our Government from infringing rights and liberties presumed to be preexisting.
The bringing-about of order is the first and fundamental task of government. We accept limits on our rights for the sake of a larger social compact all the time.
At a time of such hope and optimism in the Middle East we cannot let the Libyan government violate every principle of international law and human rights with impunity.
Well again a gun sale database is just trying to get the Department of Justice to keep track of the guns that they're purchasing and supplying to drug dealers and murderers. I mean wow. Come on let's get the government under control before we start restricting the rights of - innocent citizens.
It is unfortunate that Americans are no longer aware of what the constitution says and what their rights are. Because of that we are often very passive about what happens when the government violates those rights.
Every American regardless of their background has the right to live free of unwarranted government intrusion. Repealing the worst provisions of the Patriot Act will reign in this gross abuse of power and restore to everyone our basic Constitutional rights.
The Imperial German Government will not expect the Government of the United States to omit any word or any act necessary to the performance of its sacred duty of maintaining the rights of the United States and its citizens and of safeguarding their free exercise and enjoyment.
Americans chose a limited government that exists to protect our rights not to grant them.
There's never been a nation like the United States ever. It begins with the principles of our founding documents principles that recognize that our rights come from God not from our government.
But America was founded on the principle that every person has God-given rights. That power belongs to the people. That government exists to protect our rights and serve our interests.That we shouldn't be trapped in the circumstances of our birth. That we should be free to go as far as our talents and work can take us.
The rights of persons and the rights of property are the objects for the protection of which Government was instituted.
The diversity in the faculties of men from which the rights of property originate is not less an insuperable obstacle to an uniformity of interests. The protection of these faculties is the first object of government.