The Constitution Speaks   I am the Constitution of the United States of America -- your title deed to Freedom. I am the Magna Charta of the Rights of the Republic, the Rights of the United States and the inalienable Rights of the People. I was ordained and established by the people, for the people, for the purpose of securing for you and your posterity, the blessings of unity, justice, tranquility, the common defense, the common welfare and the perpetuity of Liberty. I am the government of Law, a superior Paramount Law, changeable only by those whom I was founded and enacted -- THE PEOPLE.  My principles are fundamental and were designed to be permanent. I bestow Legislative Powers on the Congress of the United States, and I definitely outline and define its duties and its limitations.  I also lay restrictions on the powers of the states. I vest with executive powers, the President of the United States.  The powers are not only designed but positively prescribed.  He derives his power and his authority from me. I confer judicial powers upon the one Supreme Court, to safeguard your lives and liberties.  The powers are clearly defined and limited, and that those limits might not be forgotten or mistaken, I WAS WRITTEN.  The Supreme Court is my spokesman and interpreter. I guarantee a Republican form of Government, to every state in the union, a Government of the People, by the People, and for the People, a democracy in a Republic. I guard and protect your homes, and guarantee security, from unwarrantable search and seizure. I wisely give the control of the children to their own parents, and deprive the Federal Government of any control over them. I guarantee to you, FREEDOM OF SPEECH, and FREEDOM OF THE PRESS.  I protect the rights of minorities as well as those of the majorities. I give the people the right to assemble peaceably and to petition for redress of grievances. I guarantee RELIGIOUS FREEDOM, the right to worship GOD according to the dictates of your own own conscience.  My principles of civil and religious liberty are like the Ten Commandments, perpetual and eternal, and applicable to every age and every station. I am your birthright and heritage, bought and paid for in blood and sacrifice.  I am your title deed to FREEDOM, which is yours to hold in trust for posterity.  If you fail to keep that trust inviolate, if I am nullified, destroyed or impaired you and your children will cease to be FREE AMERICANS, and will become slaves to dictators and despots. Eternal vigilance is the price of Liberty.  Guard well your heritage, lest you perish. Lucy Ramsey Maxwell, Author (Editorial note: This text was found framed at the Jewell County Museum of Mankato, Kansas in the Library room.  Contributed by Gerry Howe of Green River, Wyoming)