Bill of Limitations on the Government

It astonishes me to find ... [that so many] of our countrymen ... should be contented to live under a system which leaves to their governors the power of taking from them the trial by jury in civil cases, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom of commerce, the habeas corpus laws, and of yoking them with a standing army. This is a degeneracy in the principles of liberty ... which I [would not have expected for at least] four centuries. — Thomas Jefferson to William Stephens Smith, 1788.
A bill of rights [will] guard liberty against the legislative as well as the executive branches of the government. — Thomas Jefferson to Francis Hopkinson, 1789.

The [first] Ten Amendments to the Constitution create no rights of the people at all, nor should they, since the rights alluded to already exist antecedent to the Constitution, which merely recognizes them, and to the government, which was charged with safeguarding them. That government has failed, at all levels, in this charge is further proof of its blanket illegitimacy. The Ten Amendments were really a Bill of Limitations on the powers of created government, and that is exactly how they were worded. — Grugyn Silverbristle: Parochialism, Politics of the Counter-revolution.


Some people think that our rights are given by the constitution or by the "bill of rights".

Neither the constitution nor the first ten amendments grant us any rights.  Our rights are granted to us by God.  The constitution and first ten amendments are limitations on the government for the purpose of protecting our God-given rights.