"I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents."-- James Madison, The father of the United States Constitution
-- The Declaration of Independence"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. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."
What Frederick Douglass had to say about those principles:
From the round top of your ship of state, dark and threatening clouds may be seen. Heavy billows, like mountains in the distance, disclose to the leeward huge forms of flinty rocks! That bolt drawn, that chain, broken, and all is lost. Cling to...its principles, with the grasp of a storm-tossed mariner to a spar at midnight." -- Frederick Douglass, What to the Slave is the Fourth of July, 1852"[T]he Declaration of Independence is the RINGBOLT to the chain of your nation's destiny...The principles contained in that instrument are saving principles. Stand by those principles, be true to them on all occasions, in. all places, against all foes, and at whatever cost.