What does it mean to be a part of "We the People"? What rights do "We the People" have, and where do those rights come from?

The debate over the precise meaning of "We, the People" has raged ever since the Constitution was first ratified. Right from the outset, it was clear that not all Americans—such as women and slaves—came under the heading, as they were to be denied a share in the new nation's governance. Narrowly constructed, "We, the People" has been interpreted to mean the elite of white, male landowners who formed America's political class. It was, after all, such men who wrote the Constitution and set the rules under which the nation's political life would operate.
In any case, whoever these people were, they were endowed with natural rights, such as life, liberty, and property. These rights belong to the people by virtue of their humanity; they were not graciously bestowed upon them by a king, or a church, or any other kind of man-made political authority. We, the People were endowed with these rights by God himself, and this is what makes them unalienable.


“We the People” represents a unified body of citizens and incorporates every individual belonging to the United States. The use of the word “we” is important because it suggests that the people creating the document are the same people it will govern. Here in the first line of the Constitution, the new American people are establishing the right of the people to govern themselves, the same thing they fought over during the revolution.
What rights does this new government promise for "We the People"? Where do they come from? To answer these questions, we must look to the influence of the Enlightenment on political theory in the eighteenth century. Voices like John Locke, Montesquieu, and Rousseau emphasized certain natural rights that are guaranteed either by God or by nature itself. These rights are paraphrased in 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.

In the context of the revolution and the establishment of a new government, the social contract theory is particularly important. This theory suggests an implied agreement between the people of a government and the government itself. In exchange for the people giving power to the government, the government must protect the rights of the people. When the government fails to secure these natural rights, the people must then overthrow it. This social contract theory ensures that the people of a nation are not merely subject to its rules without any recourse to fight oppression.
The people of the new United States believed that Great Britain had failed to protect their rights, forcing them to ordain a new government written by and for "We the People."


The preamble to the United States Constitution begins with the words, "We the people . . ." In doing so, the Constitution becomes a document of the people, by the people, and for the people. Rather than the Constitution dictating the amount of power the government should have, it instead mandates that the government exists to serve the people.
According to the Bill of Rights, the Constitution guarantees that the people shall have the right to free speech, the right to bear arms, the right to resist unreasonable search and seizure, the right to a trial, the right to no cruel or unusual punishment, and the right for states to make laws not defined or limited by the U.S. Constitution. 
In addition to the rights established by the Bill of Rights, certain rights are also, as the Declaration of Independence says, "unalienable rights" given from the Creator. These include "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
 
https://billofrightsinstitute.org/founding-documents/bill-of-rights/

https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs

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