“Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm.”

A historical observation that has played itself out over and over again.

Hence the Bill of Rights. Even though the US Constitution was written clearly to declare that the chartered government had ONLY the explicit powers granted to it and no other, the Bill of Rights was added to explicitly prohibit the government from passing legislation that violated the people's natural-born rights, specifically the right to religious expression, freedom of speech and the press, the right and necessity of bearing arms, and the rights of the States in their sovereign capacity.

Where are the likes of Washington, Jefferson, Madison today? As a result, the Constitution is relatively ignored after decades of abuse.