John Locke and "The Enlightenment"

The rights was that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it.

he Constitution creates the federal government and grants various powers to the 3 branches of government.
The federal government has gained power over time through precedent - where it has exercised power at the time, and no one has objected or stopped it, so it is free to do so again. In general, the Federal government has the power it does because the people give their power to it. Locke maintained that people are born without innate ideas, and that knowledge is instead determined only by experience derived by sense perception