This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing Government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it. — 1861

My Take – The government derives its powers from the people.  People do not derive their rights from the government.  Too many of our contemporaries have forgotten that.  Our system was built in such a way that we can change our government, either tactically through elections or strategically through amending the Constitution.  The latter is difficult by design, while the former is as easy as marking a ballot.  When those avenues are closed to the people, all that is left for them is revolution.  Politicians make peaceful change impossible at their own peril.