The framers of the constitution struggled with establishing the balance between the rights of individuals and the power of government to act for the common good when they first met in 1787. They set up a system of checks and balances, emphasized the separation of powers and passed the bill of rights insuring against the exercise of arbitrary and capricious governmental power that could infringe on a great many individual liberties.
But what the framers were most concerned with protecting were the rights of property and those who had it. The opportunity that was missed was to establish a truly democratic state in which economic justice as well as universal human rights was the law of the land.