As the Obama administration continues its plan to usurp the rights of the American people with regard to commerce, energy, immigration and other key issues of our time; we should remember the warning of one of our nation's founders with regard to our rights and the document that was supposed to safeguard them. What many, especially those educated in the "modern" American public school system, may not know is that the founders strongly disagreed on whether or not to include the Bill of Rights in the US Constitution.

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Thomas Jefferson and his supporters fought hard for the inclusion of those first ten amendments which specifically mentioned the freedom of speech and religion, the right to bear arms, protection against unreasonable search and seizure etc. This seemingly righteous and ultra-American inclusion has defined the way many think of our country to this day - that our founding document bestows such rights upon our citizenry. But that view is a bastardization of the intent of the Bill of Rights, Constitution and the founding itself. In fact, the Constitution is the mechanism by which the people bestow rights upon the government.

Alexander Hamilton, a fervent opponent of the Bill of Rights, certainly agreed with the content of those amendments. What he opposed was the idea that they be included in the document at the exclusion of all other rights. Here is his warning to us:

"I go further, and affirm that bills of rights, in the sense and to the extent in which they are contended for, are not only unnecessary in the proposed Constitution, but would even be dangerous. They would contain various exceptions to powers not granted; and on this very account, would afford a colorable pretext to claim more than were granted. For why declare that things shall not be done which there is no power to do?"

- Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 84, 1788

An uneasy compromise between those who wanted the amendments included and those who did not was reached with the addition of the last two amendments in the group:

Amendment 9: "The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people."

Amendment 10: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

Surely those freedom-loving men of honor who reached that compromise and drafted those amendments believed their intent was clear and their words would be enough. But no. Old #9 seems to be lost on liberals unless they are using it to create an absolute right to privacy that is only absolute as it relates to abortion. And the States' rights referenced in #10 have become something those states must sue the federal government to win back.

And so, with all due respect to Mr. Jefferson who certainly meant well; Mr. Hamilton was correct. Perhaps he saw the world through a more realistic lens than the more sheltered and scholarly Jefferson, but he seemed to anticipate an American regime that would one day search the Constitution for that "colorable pretext to claim more than were granted". Unfortunately for the American people, that regime is now in power.