Government has no power over the rights of man. Our creator (if you do not like Creator substitute natural state) provided a system that provides all rights to all beings. Government can only restrict rights and then only so far as we are willing to tolerate it.

"that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed."

To these ends are to the ends of protecting the natural rights provided by our creator.

The fact that our government seems to believe they grant rights makes me wonder how far we are from the next section of the declaration?

"But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security"

A great number of our "leaders" are dismayed because they feel the Constitution "restrains" them.
Those impulses to limit our freedom and liberty are precisely why the framers wrote the document in that way. The Bill of Rights was enacted because several of the State refused to ratify until these rights were included.

Kudos to Walter and awebb!

Great quote and absolutely true. The Founders knew that it is the government, any government, be it king, tribal chief, democracy etc. that is the biggest threat to individual rights, which belong only to the individual based on his nature.

A democracy where everything is decided by popular vote (as many people naively believe is what we have) is as dangerous and absolute threat to the individual as a dictator or king.

Well said, Mr. Williams

The US Constitution was not written to 'grant' us anything...our rights come from our Creator, or from the state of nature, however you choose to characterize it. Rather, the Constitution was expressly written to limit the reach of the Federal government. We have the Enumerated Powers Clause...beyond that, everything else was reserved to the particular States, or to us as individuals. The fact that the framers saw fit to include a Bill of Rights speaks to how much they feared a strong centralized government. Witness how many times phrases like, Congress shall enact no law...", "...shall not be infringed...", "is prohibited" are included in these amendments