Freedom Quote

"A constitution is not a thing in name only, but in fact.  It has not an ideal but a real existence, and wherever it cannot be produced in a visible form, there is none.  A constitution is a thing antecedent to a government, and a government is only the creature of a constitution.  The constitution of a country is not the act of its government, but of a people constituting a government.  It is the body of elements to which you refer, and quote article by article, and contains the principles on which the government shall be established--the form in which it shall be organized--the powers it shall have--the mode of elections--the duration of Congress--and, in fine, everything that relates to the complete organization of a civil government, and the principles on which it shall act, and by which it shall be bound.  A constitution is to a government, therefore, what the laws made by that government are to a court of judicature.  The court of judicature does not make laws, neither can it alter them; it only acts in conformity to the laws made; and the government is in like manner governed by the constitution."

Thomas Paine