“Besides the preaching of the Gospel, we have another mission, namely, the perpetuation of the free agency of man and maintenance of liberty, freedom and the rights of man.” (John Taylor, Journal of Discourses 23:63)

Source: Ezra Taft Benson. Our Immediate Responsibility. BYU Devotional, October 25, 1966.

“As we have progressed the mist has been removed, and in relation to these matters, the Elders of Israel begin to understand that they have something to do with the world politically as well as religiously, that it is as much their duty to study correct political principles as well as religious, and to seek to know and comprehend the social and political interests of man, and to learn and be able to teach that which would be best calculated to promote the interests of the world.” (JD 9:340)

I am only one, but I am one.
I cant do everything, but I can do something.
What I can do, that I ought to do,
And what I ought to do,
By the grace of God, I shall do!

What also comes to mind when thinking of those statements is the “White Horse Prophecy”. This article will address the similarities, differences, and confusion surrounding the white horse prophecy and similar statements.

What is the “White Horse Prophecy”?

From the FAIR website: ” Joseph Smith is alleged to have uttered a prophecy in 1843 alluding to the four horses in the Book of Revelation (Revelation 6:1–8). This was recorded by two Church members, Edwin Rushton and Theodore Turley approximately ten years after Joseph’s death. There is no contemporary account that was recorded during the Prophet’s lifetime.”

The following is an excerpt of the journal of Elder John J. Roberts:

…While this conversation was going on we stood by his south wicket gate in a triangle. Turning to me, [Joseph] said, “I want to tell you something of the future. I will speak in a parable like unto John the Revelator. You will go to the Rocky Mountains and you will be a great and mighty people established there, which I will call the White Horse of peace and safety.” When the Prophet said, “You will see it,” I said, “Where will you be at that time?” He said, “I shall never go there. Your enemies will continue to follow you with persecutions and they will make obnoxious laws against you in Congress to destroy the White Horse, but you will have a friend or two to defend you and throw out the worst parts of the law so they will not hurt you so much. You must continue to petition Congress all the time, but they will treat you like strangers and aliens and they will not give you your rights, but will govern you with strangers and commissioners. You will see the Constitution of the United States almost destroyed. It will hang like a thread as fine as a silk fiber.” At that time the Prophet’s countenance became sad, because as he said, “I love the Constitution; it was made by the inspiration of God; and it will be preserved and saved by the efforts of the White Horse, and by the Red Horse who will combine in its defense. The White Horse will find the mountains full of minerals and they will become rich. You will see silver piled up in the streets. You will see the gold shoveled up like sand. Gold will be of little value then, even in a mercantile capacity; for the people of the world will have something else to do in seeking for salvation. The time will come when the banks of every nation will fall and only two places will be safe where people can deposit their gold and treasure. This place will be the White Horse and England’s vaults. A terrible revolution will take place in the land of America, such as has never been seen before; for the land will be left without a Supreme Government, and every specie of wickedness will be practiced rampantly in the land. Father will be against son and son against father; mother against daughter and daughter against mother. The most terrible scenes of bloodshed, murder and rape that have ever been imagined or looked upon will take place. People will be taken from the earth and there will be peace and love only in the Rocky Mountains. This will cause many hundreds of thousands of the honest in heart of the world to gather there, not because they would be Saints, but for safety and because they will be so numerous that you will be in danger of famine, but not for want of seed, time and harvest, but because of so many to be fed. Many will come with bundles under their arms to escape the calamities for there will be no escape except only by escaping and fleeing to Zion…

What Have Church Leaders Said About The White Horse Prophecy?

In General Conference, October 1918, Joseph F. Smith made the following comments:

The ridiculous story about the “red horse,” and “the black horse,” and “the white horse,” and a lot of trash that has been circulated about and printed and sent around as a great revelation given by the Prophet Joseph Smith, is a matter that was gotten up, I understand, some ten years after the death of the Prophet Joseph Smith, by two of our brethren who put together some broken sentences from the Prophet that they may have heard from time to time, and formulated this so-called revelation out of it, and it was never spoken by the prophet in the manner in which they have put it forth. It is simply false; that is all there is to it.

Elder Bruce R McConkie also commented on the “prophecy” in his book Mormon Doctrine:

From time to time, accounts of various supposed visions, revelations, and prophecies are spread forth by and among the Latter-day Saints, who should know better than to believe or spread such false information. One of these false and deceptive documents that has cropped up again and again for over a century is the so-called White Horse Prophecy. This supposed prophecy purports to be a long and detailed account by the Prophet Joseph Smith concerning the wars, turmoils, and difficulties which should exist in the last days.

In 2010 the Church released a statement on the “‘White Horse Prophecy’ and Political Neutrality“:

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is politically neutral and does not endorse or promote any candidate, party or platform. Accordingly, we hope that the campaign practices of political candidates would not suggest that their candidacy is supported by or connected to the church.

The so-called ‘White Horse Prophecy’ is based on accounts that have not been substantiated by historical research and is not embraced as Church doctrine.

What Did Joseph Smith Really Say?

Because the White Horse Prophecy has been dismissed by some Church leaders, there has been confusion from members of the Church with regard to other similar statements about the nation crumbling, the Constitution being on the brink of ruin and the Elders of Israel stepping up to save it. While the white horse prophecy may not be legitimate, there are several separate similar statements attributed to Joseph Smith.

The following is accepted as the most accurate, and verified, statement, and has been quoted by several modern prophets:

 Even this nation will be on the very verge of crumbling to pieces and tumbling to the ground, and when the Constitution is upon the brink of ruin, this people will be the staff upon which the nation shall lean, and they shall bear the Constitution away from the very verge of destruction.

(Source: Joseph Smith Collection, LDS Church Historical Department. Joseph Smith on July 19, 1840.)

There are many similar statements attributed to Joseph Smith by Brigham Young, Orson Hyde, Eliza Snow and modern prophets such as Harold B. Lee and Ezra Taft Benson (I have found at least 41 statements along these lines). I believe there is sufficient evidence to conclude that Joseph Smith truly said the nation and Constitution would be on the brink of ruin/destruction and that this people (LDS) will be involved in saving it. All we really have to do is look around us and see the fulfillment of many of those ‘prophecies’ even including some of the statements found in the alleged white horse prophecy. What we have yet to witness is the Elders of Israel stepping up to save the Constitution. Let’s hope that happens sooner rather than later, if at all. In the meantime those who are liberty-minded have a lot of educating to do as we assist the Elders of Israel in waking up to their awful situation (Ether 8) and from ignorance and complacency.

Regardless of what the future holds, there are plenty of scriptures and teachings of modern prophets that tell us we do have a responsibility to stand up for Agency, Freedom, Liberty and the Constitution.

What The Prophets Have Said About The Constitution Hanging By A Thread

Ezra Taft Benson:

Will we be prepared? Will we be among those who will “bear the Constitution away from the very verge of destruction?” If we desire to be numbered among those who will, here are some things we must do:

1. We must be righteous and moral… 2. We must learn the principles of the Constitution and then abide by its precepts… 3. We must become involved in civic affairs… 4. We must make our influence felt by our vote, our letters, and our advice…

I have faith that the Constitution will be saved as prophesied by Joseph Smith. But it will not be saved in Washington. It will be saved by the citizens of this nation who love and cherish freedom. It will be saved by enlightened members of this Church — men and women who will subscribe to and abide the principles of the Constitution. ( Source: CHB 28-31 )

For years we have heard of the role the elders could play in saving the Constitution from total destruction. But how can the elders be expected to save it if they have not studied it and are not sure if it is being destroyed or what is destroying it?…

There is no excuse that can compensate for the loss of liberty.

Satan is anxious to neutralize the inspired counsel of the Prophet and hence keep the priesthood off balance, ineffective and inert in the fight for freedom. He does this through diverse means, including the use of perverse reasoning. . . .

The cause of freedom is a most basic part of our religion. Our position on freedom helped get us to this earth and it can make the difference as to whether we get back home or not. . . .

Now part of the reason why we do not have sufficient Priesthood bearers to save the Constitution, let alone to shake the powers of hell, is, I fear, because unlike Moroni, our souls do not joy in keeping our country free and we are not firm in the faith of Christ, nor have we sworn with an oath to defend our rights.

( Source: “Our Immediate Responsibility” 10-11; also in An Enemy Hath Done This 313-15 )

Harold B. Lee:

It was Joseph Smith who has been quoted as having said that the time would come when then Constitution would hang as by a thread, and at that time when it was thus in jeopardy, the elders of this Church would step forth and save it from destruction.

Why the elders of this Church? Would it be sacrilegious to paraphrase the words of the Apostle Peter, and say that the Constitution of the United States could be saved by the elders of this Church because this Church and this Church alone has the words of eternal life? We alone know by revelation as to how the Constitution came into being, and we, alone, know by revelation the destiny of this nation. The preservation of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” can be guaranteed upon no other basis than upon a sincere faith and testimony of the divinity of these teachings.

( Source: “Faith – An Effective Weapon Against Wickedness in Men and Nations” 912-13 )

Joseph Fielding Smith:

The statement has been made that the Prophet [Joseph Smith] said the time would come when this Constitution would hang as by a thread, and this is true. There has been some confusion, however, as to just what he said following this. I think that Elder Orson Hyde has given us a correct interpretation wherein he says that the Prophet said the Constitution would be in danger… Now I tell you it is time the people of the United States were waking up with the understanding that if they don’t save the Constitution from the dangers that threaten it, we will have a change of government.

( Source: “Founded in the Wisdom of God” 416 )

Joseph F. Smith:

 Joseph Smith, the prophet, was inspired to affirm and ratify this truth, and he further predicted that the time would come, when the Constitution of our country would hang as it were by a thread, and that the Latter-day Saints above all other people in the world would come to the rescue of that great and glorious palladium of our liberty. We cannot brook the thought of it being torn into shreds, or destroyed, or trampled under foot and ignored by men. We cannot tolerate the sentiment, at one time expressed, by a man, high in authority in the nation. He said: “The Constitution be damned; the popular sentiment of the people is the Constitution!” That is the sentiment of anarchism that has spread to a certain extent, and is spreading over “the land of liberty and home of the brave.” We do not tolerate it. Latter-day Saints cannot tolerate such a spirit as this. It is anarchy. It means destruction. It is the spirit of mobocracy, and the Lord knows we have suffered enough from mobocracy, and we do not want any more of it. Our people from Mexico are suffering from the effects of that same spirit. We do not want any more of it, and we cannot afford to yield to that spirit or contribute to it in the least degree. We should stand with a front like flint against every spirit or species of contempt or disrespect for the Constitution of our country and the constitutional laws of our land.

( Source: “The Mexican Trouble – Loyalty to the Constitution” 101-02 )

Lorenzo Snow:

They will sustain the constitution and laws and institutions of the United States, and be the champions of liberty and of that constitution when its integrity shall be threatened.

( Source: Journal History of the Church, 15 Sep 1898, 3 )

Wilford Woodruff:

The Prophet Joseph Smith had said the time would come when the principles of the Constitution would be forsaken and that instrument would be rent asunder, and this people would then step forward and rescue it from entire destruction.

( Source: Journal History of the Church, 6 Apr 1882, 3 )

John Taylor:

It may not be among the improbabilities, that the prophecies of Joseph Smith may be fulfilled and that the calumniated and despised Mormons may yet become the protectors of the Constitution and the guardians of religious liberty and human freedom in these United States.

( Source: Journal of Discourses 23:266 )

Need we be surprised that they should trample under foot the Constitution of the United States? No; Joseph Smith told us that they would do it. Many around me here knew long ago that they would do this thing and further knew that the last people that should be found to rally around the sacred instrument and save it from the grasp of unrighteous men would be the Elders of Israel! When, therefore, we see these things progressing need we be astonished? I do not think we need be.

( Source: Journal of Discourses 20:318 )

Brigham Young:

Every organization of our government, the best government in the world, is crumbling to pieces. Those who have it in their hands are the ones who are destroying it. How long will it be before the words of the prophet Joseph will be fulfilled? He said if the Constitution of the United States were saved at all it must be done by this people. It will not be many years before these words come to pass.

( Source: Journal of Discourses 12:204 )

Others Quoting What They Heard Joseph Smith Say…

Eliza R. Snow:

I heard the prophet Joseph Smith say… that the time would come when this nation would so far depart from its original purity, its glory, and its love for freedom and its protection of civil rights and religious rights, that the Constitution of our country would hang as it were by a thread. He said, also, that this people, the sons of Zion, would rise up and save the Constitution and bear it off triumphantly.

( Source: Eliza R. Snow 556 )

Orson Hyde:

I believe he [Joseph Smith] said something like this – that the time would come when the Constitution and the country would be in danger of an overthrow; and said he, If the Constitution be saved at all, it will be by the Elders of this Church. I believe this is about the language, as nearly as I can recollect it.

( Source: Journal of Discourses 6:152 – quoted by Orson Hyde )

Jedediah M. Grant:

We are friendly to our country, and when we speak of the flag of our Union, we love it, and we love the rights the Constitution guarantees to every citizen. What did the Prophet Joseph say? When the Constitution shall be tottering we shall be the people to save it from the hand of the foe.

( Source: Tyler 350 – quoted by Jedediah M. Grant )

James Burgess:

…Joseph Smith made some remarks upon our condition as a people and upon our future prospects contrasting our present condition with our past trials and persecutions by the hands of our enemies. Also upon the constitution and government of the United States stating that the time would come when the Constitution and Government would hand [sic] by a brittle thread and would be ready to fall into other hands but this people the Latter-day Saints will step forth and save it.

( Source: The Words of Joseph Smith 279 )

Our government is a system that was founded on the premise so eloquently stated by Patrick Henry, that “there is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations.” In the Declaration of Independence there is an appeal to the “Supreme Judge of the World” and to “the laws of nature and nature’s God.”

Our system was founded on the idea that God has endowed us with rights that are inalienable, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. As the offspring of God, we share a common paternity that makes us literally brothers and thus gives us a common destiny. When this truth sinks into the human heart, men demand their inalienable rights. It is as the apostle Paul told the Corinthians, “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” (2 Corinthians 3:17.)

Ours is a system in which human rights are protected by a constitution. This is not just theory. We have bent over backwards to protect those rights; but, in some instances, our courts have given more protection to the criminal than to the law-abiding citizen.

Ours is a system based on free enterprise, which has given us the highest standard of living of any people on this earth.

Now, let us contrast our system with its alternative. Recently a remarkable speech was delivered in Washington, D.C., entitled “A Warning to America.” The speaker was an exiled Russian, a Nobel Prize winner, a man who dared to speak out against the system of communism and who spent eleven years incarcerated in the Soviet prison system because he dared to oppose that system. In his speech he denounced the communist ideology as a system—

—which introduced concentration camps for the first time in the history of the world. . . .

—which was the first . . . to use false registration. Namely they would order such and such people to come in to register. People would come in. At that point, they are taken away to be annihilated. . . .

—which introduced genocide of the peasantry. Fifteen million peasants were sent off to extermination. . . .

—which . . . artificially created a famine causing 6 million persons to die. . . .

—where for 40 years there haven’t been genuine elections, but simply a farce. . . .

—without an independent judiciary, where people have no influence on external or internal policy. . . .

—where unmasked butchers of millions like Molotov . . . have never been tried in the courts, but retire on tremendous pensions. . . .

—where these farces continue today. . . .

—where the very constitution has never been carried out for one single day, where all the decisions are made somewhere high up by a small group in secret, and then released on the country like a bolt of lightning. (Alexander Solzhenitsyn, in U.S. News and World Report, July 14, 1975, pp. 44-50.)

Yes, today we are in a worldwide battle for the bodies and souls of men, the first of its kind between two opposing systems, between freedom and slavery, between the spirit of Christianity and the spirit of the antichrist.

Great nations do not fall because of external aggression; they first erode and decay inwardly, so that, like rotten fruit, they fall of themselves. The strength of a country is the sum total of the moral strength of the individuals in that country.

Our youth today are faced with temptations to compromise their character and standards, a bombardment of temptations the like of which has not been experienced by any other age in such intensity and sophistication. These temptations are constantly before them in literature, movies, radio, clothing fashions, television, modern music, and barracks and dormitory talk. Today Satan—who I testify is real—uses many tools to weaken and destroy character. His thrust is directed at the youth and vitality of our nation. He masquerades sex perversion as something that is natural and harmless. He uses drugs (LSD, marijuana, and others), leading magazines, underground publications, television, movies, pornographic literature, and morally destructive paperback books, filthy and obscene talk—all in an effort to see young people compromise their integrity, sacrifice their morality, and spend their moral strength for the pleasure of the moment.

God created sex, but not for self-indulgence. To quote the popular evangelist Billy Graham, “God himself implanted the physical magnetism between the sexes for two reasons: for the propagation of the human race, and for the expression of that kind of love between man and wife that makes for true oneness. His command to the first man and woman to be ‘one flesh’ was as important as his command to ‘be fruitful and multiply.’” (As quoted by President Spencer W. Kimball, Conference Report, April 1974, p. 9.)

Men are not animals, left only to their instincts and self-indulgence. We are the offspring of God. God himself has set the boundaries of this sacred act. Sex outside of marriage is wrong. Every form of homosexuality is wrong. This is God’s definition of chastity. Through his prophets he has declared and reiterated, “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” (Exodus 20:14.)

We look back in retrospect on the war fought in Viet Nam and we mourn the loss of American life, the killed and the missing. But there are other casualties to that war we seldom mention, casualties that should cause every man who enters the military service to pause and consider their consequences.

I speak of the innocent babies born as offspring of adulterous relationships between some of our soldiers and the women of the Orient. No one knows the extent of these casualties. There are estimates of over 50,000 in Viet Nam. In Japan more than 20,000 were fathered by U.S. servicemen. Other thousands of offspring from illicit relations are in Thailand, Taiwan, and Korea. Many of these illegitimates have been abandoned by both fathers and mothers, and wander as helpless orphans, shunned by nearly all who see them. One of my colleagues has written:

It is said that one in every ten American soldiers fathers a child by an Asian woman.

Who has the right to beget illegitimate children?

Who has the right to take the virtue of an Asian or any other girl, or to lose his own?

Which American—at home or abroad—has the right to abandon his own flesh and blood and forget that his illegitimate child ever existed?

Can the God of heaven, who holds us all accountable for our sins, overlook this wickedness?

Of what good are national days of prayer if we do not support our prayers by our good works? Will God strengthen the arms of fighting men who desecrate his most holy laws? Will he prosper a nation that apparently condones these illicit practices and does little more than provide prophylactics to men who indulge?

Are these fathers so lacking in natural affection that they are willing to completely forget and ignore their own offspring in a foreign land?

We sing, almost tearfully at times, “God Bless America.” But we are almost constrained to ask: “How can he?”

The venereal disease rate in our war areas is frightening in the extreme. We welcome our boys home as conquering heroes, but some of them bring back a plague of venereal disease, which can destroy them.

Venereal disease is a killer. It also maims, causes heart trouble, insanity, and blindness. It destroys homes, spreads corruption to innocent wives, and blights the lives of helpless children. (Mark E. Petersen, Conference Report, April 1969, pp. 64-65.)

Some would justify their immorality with the argument that restrictions against it are merely religious rules, rules that are meaningless because in reality there is no God. This you will recognize is merely an untruthful rationalization designed to justify one’s carnal appetite, lust, and passion. God’s law is irrevocable. It applies to all, whether they believe in God or not. Everyone is subject to its penalties, no matter how one tries to rationalize or ignore them.

Immorality is next to murder in God’s category of crime, and always brings with it attendant remorse. A person cannot indulge in promiscuous relations without suffering ill effects from it. He cannot do wrong and feel right—it is impossible. Anytime one breaks a law of God, he pays a penalty in heartache, in sadness, in remorse, in lack of self-respect, and he removes himself from contact with the Spirit of God. Is it any wonder that those who indulge in sex relations outside of marriage deny God?

Our nation, the United States of America, was built on the foundation of reality and spirituality. To the extent that its citizens violate God’s commandments, especially his laws of morality—to that degree they weaken the country’s foundation. A rejection and repudiation of God’s laws could well lead our nation to its destruction just as it has to Greece and Rome. It can happen to our country unless we repent. An eminent statesman once said, “Our very civilization itself is based upon chastity, the sanctity of marriage, and the holiness of the home. Destroy these and Christian man becomes a brute.” (J. Reuben Clark, Jr., Conference Report, October 1938, p. 137.) Home is the rock foundation, the cornerstone of civilization. No nation will be stronger than its homes and families.

God’s laws are not to be trifled with. One cannot cancel out what God himself has decreed. He will not tolerate it.

We provide all young men who enter military service and who belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with a message from our Church leaders that gives them counsel on a number of matters. May I quote from a portion of this message as it pertains to the area of chastity:

To our young men who go into service, . . . we say live clean, keep the commandments of the Lord, pray to Him constantly to preserve you in truth and righteousness, live as you pray, and then whatever betides you the Lord will be with you and nothing will happen to you that will not be to the honor and glory of God and to your salvation and exaltation. There will come into your hearts from the living of the pure life you pray for, a joy that will pass your powers of expression or understanding. The Lord will be always near you; He will comfort you; you will feel His presence in the hour of your greatest tribulation; He will guard and protect you to the full extent that accords with His all-wise purpose. Then, when the conflict is over and you return to your homes, having lived the righteous life, how great will be your happiness . . . that you have lived as the Lord commanded. You will return so disciplined in righteousness that thereafter all Satan’s wiles and stratagems will leave you untouched. Your faith and testimony will be strong beyond breaking. You will be looked up to and revered as having passed through the fiery furnace of trial and temptation and come forth unharmed. (Conference Report, April 1942, p. 96.)

I think that promise is applicable to men of all faiths and beliefs.

For the happiness that will result to them, for the self-respect added to their character, for the moral strength added to our country, I urge all of our youth to be true to God and to themselves. I urge them to be chaste, to keep high moral standards, and to maintain personal integrity, honesty, and virtue.

May God bless each one of them according to their personal righteousness. May they listen and heed His counsel as He has provided it through His prophets.

Put simply, I believe the tower is Zion and the watchmen are the “pure in heart”.

The prophets are often referred to as the watchmen on the tower, and that is quite fitting considering their call to be prophets, seers, and revelators. We are privileged to receive their counsel on a regular basis, in General Conference, and elsewhere, which, if followed, will be a protection to us. I believe, furthermore, that we all can be watchmen on the tower, we all should be, especially within our own families and communities.

In the parable of the Tower, the Lord asked for watchmen to be placed around the vineyard, upon the walls, as a well as a watchman upon the tower. The reason for the tower was to see the enemy coming from far away. Unfortunately, after only working on the foundation, the servants felt, because it was a time of peace, that they had no need for the tower, and this resulted in much destruction.

I believe this parable applies to us, individually, and as a Church. Since 2 years after the Church was founded in 1830 we have been under condemnation. “And they shall remain under this condemnation until they repent and remember the new covenant, even the Book of Mormon and the former commandments which I have given them, not only to say, but to do according to that which I have written.” Fortunately, as individuals, we can remove ourselves from such condemnation by reading and using the Book of Mormon as we should, and by keeping the commandments and covenants we have received.

As we strive to follow Christ, and seek guidance and revelation from the Lord, we become watchmen upon the tower. It is primarily through being in-tune with the Spirit that we can see the enemy coming from afar and act accordingly. As we continue to build Zion, to establish the Kingdom of God upon this earth, in other words, as we do our part to build the Tower, the Spirit of the Lord will be upon us, and will warn us of danger.

The Tower also represents our homes and communities.

We must become watchmen upon our own towers and keep the enemy from destroying ourselves and our families. We must have a good relationship with our spouse and raise our children in righteousness.

We also have a civic responsibility to be involved in strengthening our communities, and standing up for correct principles and good government. As more and more people stand up for what is right within our communities, they will be protected from the evils of the world, for “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is Liberty“.

I believe the building of the tower also relates to the building up of the political Kingdom of God as mentioned in the scriptures. The Book of Revelation, Chapter 12, refers to a woman who flees from the dragon into the wilderness, and brings forth a man child, “who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron”. We read in the Bible Dictionary that “The woman is the Church; the man child is the political kingdom of God growing out of the Church.”

How does the Constitution relate to the parable of the watchtower?

I believe that Joseph Smith’s mention of the “constitution on the brink of ruin” helps us to better understand the timeline of events related in the parable. It is also stated that “they (the saints) shall bear the constitution away from the very verge of destruction”. This should serve as a reminder of those principles we must be upholding, the principles of Liberty.

After relating the parable of the watchtower, Joseph Smith said:

” …the Enemy shall come as a thief in the night and scatter the servants abroad when the seed of these 12 Olive trees are scattered abroad they will wake up the Nations of the whole Earth. Even this Nation will be on the very verge of crumbling to pieces and tumbling to the ground, and when the constitution is upon the brink of ruin, this people will be the Staff upon which the Nation shall lean, and they shall bear the constitution away from the very verge of destruction. Then shall the Lord say, “go, tell all my servants who are the strength of mine house, my young men, and middle aged, and come to the Land of my vineyard and fight the battle of the Lord”. Then the Kings & Queens shall come, then the rulers of the Earth shall come, then shall all saints come, yea the Foreign saints shall come to fight for the Land of my vineyard, for in this thing shall be their safety, and they will have no power to choose but will come as a man fleeth from a sudden destruction.”

I believe Joseph Smith was prophesying about events past, events currently happening and those to come.

We are currently in the days where the Constitution is “hanging by a thread”, the Secret Combinations have obtained sole management of the government, and the nation is getting ripe for destruction. The enemy is among us, and people are waking up.

There is still time to strengthen ourselves and others, to preach the Gospel unto all the earth, to stand up for freedom; to lift where we stand.

Ezra Taft Benson warned us that one of the devils most effective neutralizers is:

“‘Don’t do anything in the fight for freedom until the Church sets up its own specific program to save the Constitution’… To those slothful servants who will not do anything until they are ‘compelled in all things’, maybe the Lord will never set up a specific church program for the purpose of saving the Constitution. Perhaps if he set one up at this time it might split the Church asunder, and perhaps he does not want that to happen yet for not all the wheat and tares are fully ripe.”

The prophesied time will come, the moment we’ve all been waiting for, when we will finally take back the Lord’s vineyard (from the enemy), place watchmen round about and on the walls, and finish building the tower (Zion).

“The field is white already to harvest; wherefore, thrust in your sickles, and reap with all your might, mind, and strength.” (D&C 33:7)

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Beyond the thoughts I have shared with you, I’d also like to share some insights from others that I have asked about the meaning of the parable of the tower in the past:

The Tower was supposed to be a Watch tower to view the enemy while they were afar off. I believe a modern day ‘watch tower’ would have been a news service like like a CNN or Fox News. It would’ve been extremely expensive to build but we could have watch the politicians during Christmas breaks changing our Constitution by passing unratified ammendments and Federal Reserve Acts. We could further warn the Saints concerning the deceptions in war and promote truth and expose wickedness to a worldwide audience. It would be a broadcast “tower” to the world.

- – - – - – - – -

I take this as, the Tower is the Constitution or the knowledge of it (Knowledge = Power) and that knowledge acts as a Tower. If you know the principles of freedom then you can see the enemy afar off when they say things that are in conflict with constitutional principles. Remember anything more or less than the Constitution cometh of evil, the Tower is the principles of the Constitution (“know your constitution!”). The people do not want to know all about what is in the constitution because they have no need and then the enemy, Gadiantons, have taken the constitution (tower) and the Lord is commanding US to take it back! The Lord asks for his strong servants, young men and middle age?? This is the youth that have been held back for 6000 years! Think on it carefully. “Young men and middle age servants, the old ones had their chance and they messed it up in the Pres. Mckay and Pres. Benson’s times, they had no need to study the constitution (tower) and refused to listen to Mckay and Benson (save a few). Now it has been taken over by the evil men scheming to change our Tower (constitution) to their own liking! This is what I take from all this, now is our time, this is our moment to take back the Tower.

I also know there is a lot of “endure to the end” to be done, John the revelator talks of the great patience of the Saints. Just a thought.

- – - – - – - – -

In the other parables of the vineyard, it meant the earth.

This vineyard is a choice spot in the land, and that would be the US in my eyes.

Those on the towers are those that would guard this land, protect the liberty.

If liberty falls, the church does not exist in this land.

To me, this says that we have been called to stand up, climb the towers and uproot all those that are enemies to liberty, because they are enemies to the gospel of Jesus Christ by being such. And in order to do that, we must preach the gospel, and preach it in action. We stand up, we get involved, we educate the people, and we take the country back. As we do this, it destroys their strong holds, their power, and they crumble to the earth.

That is how I was impressed. To get up and defend the gospel through protecting the liberty of this nation. That it is my mission to do so, and that I was sent in this time because I will risk it all to save liberty, therefore protecting the gospel of Jesus Christ.

My brethren and sisters, in common with you I have enjoyed the quiet, the peace, and the hope of this conference. It is my earnest prayer-which I hope shall be fortified by-yours that I may say nothing today which will mar that spirit, but on the contrary will help to build it up.

Tribute and Counsel to Choir

I should like again to pay tribute to the beautiful music which we have had during this conference-the Singing Mothers, the Manti Choir, the Hawaiian Chorus, and now this morning our wonderful Tabernacle Choir. I can assure you that perhaps nothing we have ever done in the Church has been more effective in bringing before the people of the world a message of peace, of good will, of faith, and of hope, than the work of this choir. They, combined with the organ, speak with a spiritual authority which is felt by all of those who listen; and I am sure you pray with me that their work may be continued, that their ardor may be increased, but above and beyond all that individually and collectively their spirituality shall be built up. Because I wish to tell them and to tell you that their message will travel to the ends of the earth, as the Lord designs it, only if they shall live in accordance with the laws and the principles of the Gospel. It need not be thought by any of them that he is but one of a number, and therefore his life does not count; they live under as strict a law as the old laws of Moses, where the ills of one were visited upon the whole body.

So, to each and every one of them I lend not only encouragement, but I give to them a word of advice and caution: They must live in accordance with the principles of the Gospel if they are to perform the mission to which they are called.

Sustaining Governments and Laws a Fundamental Precept

I desire, my brethren and sisters, to speak upon a matter than which nothing is nearer to my heart in this world. I want to speak of it in soberness, in sincerity, and with all the earnestness I can command. The matter about which I wish to speak is the Constitution of the United States, and the Government provided for and set up under it.

The Twelfth Article of Faith reads:

We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law.

That is one of the fundamental precepts of our faith.

Governments Instituted of God

At a general assembly held in Kirtland on August 17, 1835, the Saints adopted a series of statements regarding human government. They are wise and as far-reaching as the Articles of Faith themselves, and I wish to read some of the paragraphs therefrom. They were given after the mobbings, the plunderings, the assassinations of and part of our experiences in Missouri. They were uttered by a people, who, judged by human standards, had every reason to feel that their government had failed, and that they might not hopefully and successfully look thereto for their protection. The first paragraph of that Declaration (Section 134) reads as follows:

We believe that governments were instituted of God for the benefit of man. . . .

Accountable to the Lord

Thus is declared in this first clause the origin of human government. The paragraph continues:

and that he holds men accountable for their acts in relation to them. . . .

Therefore, every man who takes on a responsibility by virtue of assuming office in worldly government, is responsible to the Lord himself for the way in which he carries it out. I am sure there is here something to give pause to every Latter-day Saint who seeks the franchise of his fellow citizens in order that he may rule over them. This paragraph continues:

both in making laws and administering them, for the good and safety of society.

So that, whether a man takes office in the legislature, or in the executive branch of government, or in the judicial branch, he becomes, by virtue of that assumption of office, responsible to the Lord himself under the decrees of this Church.

Paragraph No. 2 reads:

We believe that no government can exist in peace, except such laws are framed and held inviolate as will secure to each individual. . . .

And I ask you to note the declaration which now follows these words, a declaration, I repeat, made after the mobbings and plunderings of Missouri, when apparently government had failed. A declaration made after the people had tried the United Order and had not been able to live up to it, made after they had been rocked and torn by hardships and persecutions, against which they should have been protected. The paragraph continues:

will secure to each individual, the free exercise of conscience, the right and control of property, and the protection of life.

These are the great basic elements of free, ordered society and government.

Two Declarations of Equal Wisdom

May I place here alongside this Declaration of our own people, that well-known and inspired utterance of those who framed 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 inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

These two great declarations, the one of the Church and the other of the fathers of our country, stand side by side, equal in their wisdom and in their present timeliness. Each was born of oppression and persecution.

Freedom of Worship

The 4th paragraph of that Declaration adopted at Kirtland reads as follows:

We believe that religion is instituted of God; and that men are amenable to him, and to him only, for the exercise of it, unless their religious opinions prompt them to infringe upon the rights and liberties of others, That, my brethren and sisters, is fundamental with us. We are universal in our tolerance and in our respect for the opinions of others. We feel we may rightfully ask for the same consideration for ourselves.

This also was announced in our Articles of Faith, the eleventh article reading:

We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may.

The final clauses of the fourth paragraph of the Declaration read:

But we do not believe that human law has the right to interfere in prescribing rules of worship to bind the consciences of men, nor dictate forms for public or private devotion; that the civil magistrates should restrain crime but never control conscience; should punish guilt, but never suppress the freedom of the soul.

I will ask you to carry those last clauses in your mind until I reach a later portion of what I hope to say.

World-Wide Church

The 5th paragraph of this great Declaration reads as follows:

We believe that all men are bound to sustain and uphold the respective governments in which they reside, while protected in their inherent and inalienable rights by the laws of such governments. . . .

In that Declaration the Church visualized not alone an existence here in the United States of America, but it visualized an existence in all parts of the world, as the Church has grown to be and to exist, and it laid down the rule of conduct by which all Latter-day Saints should be guided, no matter where they live or to what flag they owe allegiance. Thus the Church visualized its great destiny-a world-wide Church among all nations.

Personal and Property Rights Protected

This paragraph continues:

And that all governments have a right to enact such laws as in their own judgments are best calculated to secure the public interest; at the same time, however, holding sacred the freedom of conscience.

I ask you to hold in mind that sentiment and that principle also.

I shall read only one more of the twelve paragraphs of the Declaration; I now read the 11th paragraph:

We believe that men should appeal to the civil law for redress of all wrongs and grievances, where personal abuse is inflicted or the right of property or character infringed, where such laws exist as will protect the same; but we believe that all men are justified in defending themselves, their friends, and property, and the government, from the unlawful assaults and encroachments of all persons in times of exigency, where immediate appeal cannot be made to the laws, and relief afforded.

The foregoing were the declarations of this people on the principles underlying human government; this people still adheres to these principles.

Loyalty to Rule of Law

I pass now to the divine word regarding our own government. While the Saints were still undergoing suffering in Missouri, and after they had suffered much from the mobs who were driving them from their homes, and mis-treating and mal-treating them, the Lord gave a revelation to the Church, in the course of which he said (I am reading from Section 101 of the Doctrine and Covenants):

And again I say unto you, those who have been scattered by their enemies, it is my will that they should continue to importune for redress, and redemption, by the hands of those who are placed as rulers and are in authority over you-

Notwithstanding all their sufferings, the Lord directs that they shall still have a loyalty to the rule of law. The revelation continues:

According to the laws and constitution of the people, which I have suffered to be established, and should be maintained for the rights and protection of all flesh, according to just and holy principles;

That every man may act in doctrine and principle pertaining to futurity, according to the moral agency which I have given unto him . . .

Divine Word Regarding Human Government

The Lord is here declaring the scope and fundamental principle of the Constitution of the United States:

That every man may be accountable for his own sins in the day of judgment. Therefore it is not right that any man should be in bondage one to another.

And for this purpose have I established the Constitution of this land by the hands of wise men whom I raised up unto this very purpose.

To me, my brethren and sisters, that statement of the Lord, “I have established the Constitution of this land,” puts the Constitution of the United States in the position in which it would be if it were written in this book of D&C itself. This makes the Constitution the word of the Lord to us. That it was given, not by oral utterance, but by the operation of his mind and spirit upon the minds of men, inspiring them to the working out of this great document of human government, does not alter its authority.

Religion and the Constitution

The first Congress of the United States, when it began to consider the operations of the government under the Constitution, became impressed that there was not in that document, as originally drawn, any so-called Bill of Rights; there were in the document no provisions which should keep the people free, which should protect them in their daily lives, nor guarantee to them the great liberties which the Declaration of Independence declared were the heritage of men. Accordingly this Congress proposed to the original states the first ten amendments to the Constitution, and it is significant, I am sure, of the influence which the Lord was at that time bringing to bear upon the minds of men, that the very first clause of the very first amendment declared:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. Thus the very first thing which our fathers sought to secure for themselves and for their posterity was freedom to worship as they wished. I do not need to call to your minds the trials and persecution which this people have suffered in the past, in order to bring home to you the conviction that nothing else in the great document, the Constitution, is so important to this people as is this guarantee of religious freedom, because underneath and behind all that lies in our lives, all that we do in our lives, is our religion, our worship, our belief and faith in God. We need the Constitution and its guarantees of liberty and freedom more than any other people in the world, for, few and weak as we are, we stand naked and helpless except when clothed with its benign provisions.

Endeavoring to Establish Modern Paganism

So well known is this, so thoroughly is it understood that the dictators of the world are now seeking to take hold of the religion of the people over whom they rule. They are doing away, or trying to, with the churches of Christianity. They are trying to establish, even in great and progressive nations, a modern paganism. That can never be done under the Constitution of the United States, and that is why its protection and preservation come to us as one of the most vital duties we can have in life.

Fundamentals of Constitution God-Given

One of the most important things that we can do for the Church is to stand behind the Constitution of the United States. That does not mean, and no reasoning person would suppose that it meant, that that Constitution may not from time to time be changed as the needs of the people would seem to require. But it does mean that that Constitution should be changed only under the urge of great necessity, and then only in accordance with its great underlying concepts. It does mean that the great fundamental elements of the Constitution are God-given, for he said so. It does mean to me as an individual that the Constitution of the United States and my adherence to it and support of it is a part of my religion.

I have about the Constitution that same sort of conviction that I have about the other doctrines that we are taught, for I believe its precepts are among the doctrines of the Church, and I believe that the Lord will change and modify from time to time those details of its provisions which are ancillary to its great principles; he will cause us-those who live under it-to modify it in accordance with our needs; but the fundamental principles of it we may not sacrifice.

Elemental Principles of Constitution

We may not abrogate the great principles that the majority must rule; that we shall live under a written Constitution; that we shalt be governed by people chosen by the free, untrammeled, and uncompelled will of the people; that there shall be an absolute guarantee of our personal liberties, as also of our rights to property, and to the protection therefor; that there shall continue freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of religion; that the punishment of common crime and misdemeanors shall remain the function of state, county and municipal government; that there shall be three great and wholly independent branches of government-the executive, the legislative, and the judicial; that the determination of the constitutionality of legislative acts shall continue in the judiciary; that no power shall exist in one branch of government to delegate its power and authority to another; that the rights and power of the executive branch of the government shall continue to be merely that of executing the aw; that the federal government shall continue to guarantee to every state a republican form of government. If time permitted I could mention other principles of like importance to these.

No Dictatorship in America

A proper understanding of the Constitution of the United States makes clear that, under it, there is no room in America for a dictatorship. There are those in subordinate positions in government, there are those among us, citizens of this country, who are looking forward to some sort of overturning which would make opportunity for the establishment of some other sort of government than that provided by our Constitution. It is my faith and belief that these overtures, these revolutionists, are but few, but they are attacking the citadel of our liberties, they are attacking the guarantee of the freedom of our worship, and the Latter-day Saints can not be numbered among them.

In Need of Convictions

Convictions are the great need of the people of the world today. Men need to be convinced of something. They need religious convictions, and it is not, in the first instance so important what those convictions may be, looking to the peace and ordered condition of the world. The people of the world need convictions regarding righteousness in civic and political life; they need convictions on the eternal verities of right and wrong. Great masses of people everywhere in the world are wandering aimlessly in their religious, in their intellectual, in their social, and in their civic lives, without any guiding principles; “every wind of doctrine” strains the moorings that have held them for generations.

This must be changed.

Our Opportunity and Mission

This great audience is a demonstration that among the Latter-day Saints there still remain convictions in all of the fields of human endeavor and activity which I have named. It is our opportunity to make of these convictions our glory. It is our opportunity and our duty to make of these the leaven that “leaveneth the whole lump.” In so far as we fail to do this, we shall fail in the mission which the Lord gave to us, and shall not reach the destiny which he has set for us.

My brethren and sisters, this nation of ours has a record of achievement behind it that we may not lightly cast aside, for it is builded upon the experiences of men during the ages that are past. Consider our growth and our development, consider what we are, consider how we have come to be what we are, contemplate this government of ours, this heritage which our fathers bought with their lives and bequeathed to us, and then do not lightly thrust aside the great fundamentals of our national life for something yet untried.

May the Lord be with us at all times, under all circumstances; may he bring into our lives a burning desire to uphold the Constitution, a living faith in its inspired origin, that we may always be found among those who shall support it to the last breath. May God give us this I ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me that they may be one as we are.

Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;

That they all may be one: as thou, Father, art in me and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe in us. (John 17:11–21.)

As nearly all of you readily recognize, I have quoted from one of the most sublime prayers ever offered among men. It is an Intercessory Prayer. The occasion makes the things prayed for most significant. In it Jesus makes unity preeminent among his followers.

Unity and its synonyms, harmony, goodwill, peace, concord, mutual understanding, express a condition for which the human heart constantly yearns. Its opposites are discord, contention, strife, confusion.

Unity in the Home

I can imagine few if any things more objectionable in the home than the absence of unity and harmony. On the other hand, I know that a home in which unity, mutual helpfulness, and love abide is just a bit of heaven on earth. I surmise that nearly all of you can testify to the sweetness of life in homes in which these virtues predominate. Most gratefully and humbly, I cherish the remembrance that never once as a lad in the home of my youth did I ever see one instance of discord between father and mother, and that goodwill and mutual understanding have been the uniting bond that has held together a fortunate group of brothers and sisters. Unity, harmony, goodwill are virtues to be fostered and cherished in every home.

Unity in Church Organizations

In branches and wards, there is no virtue more conducive to progress and spirituality than the presence of this principle. When jealousy, backbiting, evil-speaking supplant confidence, self- subjection, unity, and harmony the progress of the organization is stifled.

Unpatriotic Activities a Menace to Free Government

However, what really prompted me to emphasize this principle is the presence in our own United States of influences the avowed object of which is to sow discord and contention among men with the view of undermining, weakening, if not entirely destroying our constitutional form of government. If I speak plainly, and in condemnation lay bare reprehensible practices and aims of certain organizations, please do not think that I harbor ill-will or enmity in my heart towards other United States citizens whose views on political policies do not coincide with mine. But when acts and schemes are manifestly contrary to the revealed word of the Lord, we feel justified in warning people against them. We may be charitable and forbearing to the sinner, but must condemn the sin.

Timely references and appropriate warnings have been given during this Conference on the danger and evils of war. There is another danger even more menacing than the threat of invasion of a foreign foe. It is the unpatriotic activities and underhanded scheming of disloyal groups and organizations within our own borders. This country is so situated geographically that there need be little fear of invasion by an outside enemy. Furthermore, the government knowing who and where the enemy is can make ample preparation to meet his attacks. But the secret, seditious scheming of an enemy within our own ranks, hypocritically professing loyalty to the government, and at the same time plotting against it, is more difficult to deal with.

Disintegration is often more dangerous and more fatal than outward opposition. For example, an individual can usually protect himself from thunder showers, and even from tempests, from freezing weather or intense heat, from drought, or floods, or other extremes in nature; but he is often helpless when poisonous germs enter his body or a malignant growth begins to sap the strength of some vital organ.

The Church is little if at all injured by persecution and calumnies from ignorant, misinformed or malicious enemies; a greater hindrance to its progress comes from fault-finders, shirkers, commandment-break-ers, and apostate cliques within its own ecclesiastical and quorum groups.

So it is in government. It is the enemy from within that is most menacing, especially when it threatens to disintegrate our established form of government.

Washington’s Greatest Trial

Perhaps the most gloomy, discouraging period of the American Revolution was when General Washington’s army was in Winter Quarters at Valley Forge. He had fewer than 10,000 men. Soldiers were thinly clad, some half naked, others with no clothing but tattered blankets wrapped around them. “So many were sick as the result of privation,” writes one commentator, “so many were without coats, blankets, hats, or shoes that one wonders how the army held together at all.” Critical and desperate as were these conditions, a greater trial and sorrow, I surmise, came to Washington when some of his friends such as John Adams and Richard Henry Lee turned against him; when General Gates insulted him by sending reports direct to Congress instead of to Washington, his superior officer. As carrion hawks hover around dying creatures, so in Washington’s dire calamity came men to seek to crush him-men who formed what has been called the “Conway Cabal,” a contemptible attempt to dishonor Washington and to supplant him by a self-assrting, arrogant schemer. This internal discord, and such disloyalty from one-time friends were more crushing than were the attacks of the opposing army.

Anti-Americanism Sowing Discord

Today there are in this country enemies in the form of “isms.” I call them Anti-Americanisms. Only a few of the leaders fight openly-most of the army carry on as termites, secretly sowing discord and undermining stable government. Of the truth of this statement recent investigations made by a committee of the United States Senate bear ample evidence. Of the menace of one of these, Dr. William F. Russell, Dean of Teachers’ College, Columbia University, in an address “How to Tell a Communist, and How to Beat Him,” is one of the many authorities whom we might quote as to the pernicious activity of these groups.

A Statement As to Communism

He says:

Communist leaders have steadily insisted that Communism cannot live in just one country. Just as we fought to make “the world safe for democracy,” so they are fighting to make the world safe for Communism. They are fighting this fight today. Every country must become Communistic, according to their idea. So they have sent out missionaries. They have supplied them well with funds. They have won converts. These converts have been organized into little groups called “cells,” each acting as a unit under the orders of a superior. It is almost a military organization. They attack where there is unemployment. They stir up discontent among those oppressed. * * * They work their way into the unions, where they form compact blocks. They publish and distribute little papers and pamphlets. At the New York Times they pass out one called “Better Times.” At the Presbyterian Hospital it is called “The Medical Worker.” At the College of the City of New York, it is called “Professor, Worker, Student.” At Teachers College it iscalled “The Educational Vanguard.” These are scurrilous sheets. In one issue I noted twenty-nine errors of fact. After a recent address of mine they passed out a dodger attacking me, with a deliberate error of fact in each paragraph, These pamphlets cost money-more than $100 an issue. The idea is to try to entice into their web those generous and public-spirited teachers, preachers, social workers and reformers who know distress and want to do something about it. These Communists know what they are doing. They follow their orders. Particularly they would like to dominate our newspapers, our colleges and our schools. The campaign is much alike all over the world. I have seen the same articles, almost the same pamphlets, in France and England as in the United States.

You see, when it comes to fighting Communists I am a battle-scarred veteran. But after twenty years I cannot tell one by looking at him. However, only the leaders proclaim their membership. The clever are silent, hidden, anonymous, boring from within. You can only tell a Communist by his ideas.

Their method of working their way to the seizure of power he describes as follows:

Talk about peace, talk about social equality, especially among those most oppressed. Talk about organization of labor, and penetrate into every labor union. Talk on soap boxes. Publish pamphlets and papers. Orate and harangue. Play on envy. Arouse jealousy. Separate class from class. Try to break down the democratic processes from within. Accustom the people to picketing, strikes, mass meetings. Constantly attack the leaders in every way possible, so that the people will lose confidence. Then in time of national peril, during a war, on the occasion of a great disaster, or on a general strike, walk into the capital and seize the power. A well-organized minority can work wonders.

Warning to Latter-Day Saints

I have been informed from several sources that some of these spurious political growths are sprouting here in our own midst, that members of these groups have even received instructions regarding what to do in case this country should become involved in war. The nature of these instructions savors very much of the diabolical gun-powder plot n the time of James the First of England.

Latter-day Saints should have nothing to do with secret combinations and groups antagonistic to the Constitutional law of the land, which the Lord “suffered to be established,” and which “should be maintained for the rights and protection of all flesh, according to just and holy principles;

That every man may act in doctrine and principle pertaining to futurity, according to the moral agency which I have given unto him, that every man may be accountable for his own sins in the day of judgment.

Therefore, it is not right that any man should be in bondage one to another.

And for this purpose have I established the Constitution of this land, by the hands of wise men whom I raised up unto this very purpose, and redeemed the land by the shedding of blood. (Doc. and Cov. 101-77, 80.)

Of course there are errors in government which some would correct, certainly there are manifest injustices and inequalities, and there will always be such in any government in the management of which enter the frailties of human nature. If you want changes go to the polls on election day, express yourself as an American citizen, and thank the Lord for the privilege that is yours to have a say as to who shall serve you in public office.

Importance of Upholding the Constitution

Next to being one in worshiping God there is nothing in this world upon which this Church should be more united than in upholding and defending the Constitution of the United States.

May the appeal of our Lord in his Intercessory Prayer for Unity be realized in our homes, our wards and stakes, and in our support of the basic principles of our Democracy.

In the words of John Oxenham:

God grant us wisdom in these coming days,
And eyes unsealed, that we clear visions see
Of that new world that He would have us build,
To life’s ennoblement and His high ministry.
God give us sense,-God-sense of Life’s new needs,
And souls aflame with new-born chivalries-
To cope with those black growths that foul the ways,-
To cleanse our poisoned founts with God-born energies.
To pledge our souls with nobler, loftier life,
To win the world to His fair sanctities,
To bind the nations in a Pact of Peace,
And free the Soul of Life for finer loyalties.
Not since Christ died upon His lonely cross
Has Time such prospect held of Life’s new birth;
Not since the world of chaos first was born
Has man so clearly visaged hope of a new earth.
Not of our own might can we hope to rise
Above the ruts and soilures of the past,
But, with His help who did the first earth build,
With hearts courageous we may fairer build this last.

God guide this Church, and particularly the Priesthood, in building according to God’s plan, and in establishing his kingdom on earth, I pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

A Glorious Standard for All Mankind is a compilation of prophetic quotes on the Constitution of the United States.

Using recorded statements of the Lord, ancient prophets, and latter day prophets and apostles, this outstanding reference work by LDS author Christopher Bentley gives one greater understanding of the importance of the US Constitution to Latter Day Saints. It is a compendium of statements concerning the duty of LDSs to befriend it, God’s inspiration for its creation, the negligence on our part for its current neglect, and the importance of our upholding it and preparing to revitalize it in the future.

Purchase: A Glorious Standard: For All Mankind by Christopher S. Bentley

Our Dear Brothers and Sisters:

On September 17, 1987, we commemorate the two-hundredth birthday of the signing of the United States Constitution. The group of inspired men assembled for that convention produced the document that the Prophet
Joseph Smith referred to as “a glorious standard” and “a heavenly banner.”

In commemoration of this important event, we are providing this booklet, which contains three family home evening lessons, activity ideas, and a copy of the Constitution. We encourage you to prepare and teach each lesson prayerfully so that family members may feel the divine significance of the Constitution in their minds and hearts.

Faithfully, your brethren,
The First Presidency
(Ezra Taft Benson, Gordon B. Hinckley, Thomas S. Monson)

Click here to download a PDF version (14-pages) of the “Family Home Evening Lessons for the Bicentennial of the Constitution“

(to save the file to your computer, right click the link and choose ‘save as’)

On January 29, 1844, the Prophet Joseph Smith formally decided to run for the office of president of the United States. What did he hope to accomplish?

It began in 1839. The Prophet Joseph Smith, finally free after more than four months of imprisonment in Liberty, Missouri, had settled in Illinois, and the Saints had begun building what would become the city of Nauvoo. With the Missouri persecutions fresh in their minds, the Saints sought redress for the grievances they had suffered, but they were not successful.1

Frustrated, Joseph determined to seek help from the federal government. After all, weren’t all Americans guaranteed the protections found in the Bill of Rights, the first 10 amendments to the United States Constitution? The very first of these is generally taken as a guarantee of the right to practice religion freely.

The Prophet Visits the President

Joseph Smith left Nauvoo for Washington, D.C., with Sidney Rigdon, Elias Higbee, and Orrin Porter Rockwell in a two-horse carriage “to lay before the Congress of the United States, the grievances of the Saints while in Missouri.”2 Joseph and Judge Higbee met with President Martin Van Buren on November 29, 1839. At first Van Buren was inconsiderate of the Prophet’s plea. However, as the discussion progressed, the president promised to reconsider his position and “felt to sympathize with [the Mormons], on account of [their] sufferings.”3

After their visit with President Van Buren, the Prophet and Elias Higbee stayed two months in the East, trying to gain support from senators and representatives who might be willing to espouse their cause.4 They met with President Van Buren again in February 1840.5 By this time, Van Buren had lost any sympathetic feelings he might have had for the Church. According to the Prophet, the president treated them rudely and declared: “Gentlemen, your cause is just, but I can do nothing for you. … If I take up for you I shall lose the vote of Missouri.”6

Joseph Smith’s disappointing visit to Washington, D.C., became a turning point for him. His people had been abused and unjustly treated in Missouri, and the president of the United States had refused to help. The Church leaders would remember this neglect when the time came for another presidential election.

The 1844 Election Cycle Begins

In Nauvoo the Times and Seasons published an editorial on October 1, 1843, titled “Who Shall Be Our Next President?” It did not suggest any specific names but concluded that the candidate must be “the man who will be the most likely to render us assistance in obtaining redress for our grievances.”7 On November 4, 1843, Joseph Smith wrote letters to John C. Calhoun, Lewis Cass, Richard M. Johnson, Henry Clay, and Martin Van Buren, the five leading candidates for the presidency of the United States. Each letter described the persecutions the Mormons had suffered at the hands of the state of Missouri and then asked the pointed question, “ ‘What will be your rule of action relative to us as a people,’ should fortune favor your ascension to the chief magistracy?”8 Only Calhoun, Cass, and Clay responded to Joseph Smith’s letters, and they expressed little sympathy for the cause of the Saints.

When the Prophet realized that none of the leading candidates for the presidency would pledge to support redress for the Saints, he held a historic meeting in the mayor’s office at Nauvoo on January 29, 1844, with the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and others. It was unanimously decided that Joseph Smith would run for president of the United States on an independent platform.9 Thus began one of the most fascinating third-party presidential campaigns in American history.

Joseph Smith’s Platform

Joseph wasted little time in preparing a platform for his campaign. He met with William W. Phelps and dictated to him the headings for a political pamphlet titled General Smith’s Views of the Powers and Policy of the Government of the United States,10 the foundation document for his presidential platform. The platform didn’t specifically mention the Latter-day Saints’ persecution in Missouri; instead, it offered solutions for many of the nation’s most pressing problems.

The most important plank in Joseph’s platform concerned the powers of the president. Joseph wanted to give the chief magistrate “full power to send an army to suppress mobs … [without requiring] the governor of a state to make the demand.”11

Eliminating slavery was another important part of his platform. He wrote in General Smith’s Views: “The Declaration of Independence ‘holds 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;’ but at the same time some two or three millions of people are held as slaves for life, because the spirit in them is covered with a darker skin.”12 Instead of simply calling for the abolition of slavery, Joseph Smith’s platform would have Congress “pay every man a reasonable price for his slaves out of the surplus revenue arising from the sale of public lands, and from the deduction of pay from members of Congress.”13

The platform also proposed changes to Congress. Joseph wanted to reduce congressional pay from eight dollars to two dollars per day. He wanted to have only two members of the House of Representatives for every one million people.14

In addition, Joseph favored extensive prison reform, forming a national bank, and annexing Oregon and Texas.15 He favored extending the United States “from the east to the west sea,” but only if Native Americans gave their consent.16

On February 24, the Prophet had 1,500 copies of the pamphlet printed. Copies were mailed to the president of the United States and his cabinet, the justices of the Supreme Court, senators, representatives, editors of principal newspapers, postmasters, and other prominent citizens.17

General Smith’s Views is an intriguing document. Many of Joseph Smith’s proposals came to pass, although not necessarily in the way he had envisioned: the power of the presidency was increased by Abraham Lincoln during the U.S. Civil War; the Civil War led to emancipation of the slaves; the penal system improved, although not to the extent that Joseph prescribed; and Oregon and Texas did become part of the United States. The Union’s borders soon stretched from sea to sea, but without the consent of Native Americans. Elder John A. Widtsoe evaluated General Smith’s Views as “an intelligent, comprehensive, forward-looking statement of policies, worthy of a trained statesman.”18

The Campaign

On April 9, 1844, during general conference, the campaign began to take on a unique nature. Brigham Young announced that elders would be called to both “preach the Gospel and electioneer.”19 During the latter part of the meeting, when President Young called for volunteers to serve these missions, 244 men stepped forward.20

Additional electioneer missionaries were called, bringing the total to at least 337. On April 15 they were assigned to all 26 states in the Union and to the Wisconsin Territory.21 Not only the number but also the quality of missionaries called was striking. Ten members of the Quorum of the Twelve—Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, Orson Hyde, Parley P. Pratt, William Smith, Orson Pratt, John E. Page, Wilford Woodruff, George A. Smith, and Lyman Wight—served as electioneer missionaries.22

The Quorum of the Twelve scheduled a series of conferences to be held all over the United States. The Illinois state convention, held at Nauvoo on May 17, 1844, formally nominated Joseph Smith for president of the United States and Sidney Rigdon for vice president. The delegates organized a national convention to be held in Baltimore, Maryland, on July 13.23

The journal of Wilford Woodruff describes the activities of an electioneer missionary. Elder Woodruff left Nauvoo on May 9 in company with George A. Smith, Jedediah M. Grant, and Ezra Thayer for an electioneer mission that would last just nine weeks. During that time he recorded that he spoke in at least six “political meetings.” He spoke at many more religious meetings than political gatherings, and he always kept his religious sermons and political speeches separate. The political gatherings were usually held the night before or very soon after the traditional Church conferences.24

Elder Woodruff and at least four other members of the Quorum of the Twelve attended the Massachusetts state convention in Boston on July 1, 1844.25 Elder Woodruff recorded in his journal: “The Melodeon was crowded in the evening, and it was soon evident that a large number of rowdies were in the galleries and felt disposed to make [a] disturbance.” One young man rose and made a series of disruptive remarks, and fighting broke out. The police were called in to restore order. Elder Woodruff recorded, “One person got badly cut in the face but not dangerous. The meeting was soon broken up.”26 Despite the disturbance, Brigham Young wrote in a letter to Willard Richards, “All this did us good in Boston.”27

Assassination Ends the Campaign

In the meantime, William Law and others in Illinois were plotting to take the life of Joseph Smith. Dr. Wall Southwick recounted a meeting he had attended in Carthage, Illinois, wherein the enemies of the Prophet had gathered together from every state in the Union but three. They were concerned that Joseph’s “views on government were widely circulated and took like wildfire.” According to Southwick, they believed that if the Prophet “did not get into the Presidential chair this election, he would be sure to the next time; and if Illinois and Missouri would join together and kill him, they would not be brought to justice for it.”28 Dr. Southwick’s statement suggests that the Prophet’s presidential campaign was at least a contributing cause for his assassination.

Joseph Smith was martyred on June 27, 1844, at the Carthage Jail, ending his brief presidential campaign. Although he did not gain redress for the wrongs suffered by the Saints in Missouri, his campaign had brought much favorable public attention to the Church. Many years later, President Ezra Taft Benson said, “We should be ‘anxiously engaged’ in good causes and leave the world a better place for having lived in it (D&C 58:27).”29 Joseph Smith’s presidential campaign had sought to make the United States a better place, not only for the Latter-day Saints, but for all Americans.

Why Joseph Smith Ran for President

“I would not have suffered my name to have been used by my friends on anywise as President of the United States, or candidate for that office, if I and my friends could have had the privilege of enjoying our religious and civil rights as American citizens, even those rights which the Constitution guarantees unto all her citizens alike. But this as a people we have been denied from the beginning. Persecution has rolled upon our heads from time to time, from portions of the United States, like peals of thunder, because of our religion; and no portion of the Government as yet has stepped forward for our relief. And in view of these things, I feel it to be my right and privilege to obtain what influence and power I can, lawfully, in the United States, for the protection of injured innocence.”

Joseph Smith, History of the Church, 6:210–11.

Political Neutrality

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints does not endorse, promote, or oppose political parties, candidates, or platforms. See the Newsroom at LDS.org for details.

Joseph in the Grove, by Archie D. Shaw; photograph of flag by Getty Images

After failing to acquire reassurances from leading candidates, Joseph Smith decided to run for president.

Document courtesy Church History Library

The Prophet’s political platform attempted to help the Saints by addressing the nation’s most pressing problems.

Documents courtesy Church History Library

The political campaign organized electioneers to preach the gospel and spread Joseph’s political position. Electioneering officials, assigned to all 26 states in the Union, included members of the Quorum of the Twelve.

Courtesy Church History Library

A Memorable Event

At two o’clock this afternoon, throughout all of the United States, bells of all shapes, sizes, and sounds will ring. Two hundred years ago today, at approximately two o’clock our time, delegates to the Grand Convention in Philadelphia started queuing up to sign their proposed constitution of the United States. It would still require nine months before it could really be called a constitution. This happened on 21 June 1788, when New Hampshire, the ninth state, ratified it.

During that hot and humid summer of 1787, the delegates labored nearly four months in a stuffy building with windows closed most of the time to prevent their words from being heard by the outside world during their deliberations. You from the East Coast know what it is like even with air-conditioning. I can’t imagine what it would be like with windows closed in a small, stuffy room. Tempers would flare, some delegates would go home early–compromise and crisis would take place. Yet on 17 September 1787 they signed the document that is now the oldest written constitution of its kind in the world. It has served nearly 457 million Americans to date–247 million of whom are alive today.

How was it possible that these delegates, living in an eighteenth-century rural society, could write a constitution that would effectively serve 247 million people living in the twentieth-century space age? What did they know that writers of hundreds of other constitutions since have not known? Was there something unique about its creation or the men who wrote it? Many of the delegates realized the importance of what they were doing. Benjamin Franklin had said that if the convention failed, “mankind may hereafter from this unfortunate instance despair of establishing governments by human wisdom and leave it to chance, war and conquest” (Catherine Drinker Bowen, Miracle at Philadelphia [Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1966], p. 126). Possibly this is the reason, in spite of ill health and personal suffering, that he attended the convention.

Another delegate, Rufus King, said that his fears were more agitated for his country than he could express, that he conceived this to be the last opportunity of providing for liberty and happiness for the people. Madison had also said at the beginning of the convention that the delegates “were now digesting a plan which in its operation would decide forever the fate of Republican Government” (26 June 1787, Records of the Federal Convention, vol. 1 [New Haven: Yale University Press, 1911], 423).

Hamilton had written in the Federalist Papers:

It has been frequently remarked that it seems to have been reserved to the people of this country, by their conduct and example, to decide the important question, whether societies of men are really capable or not of establishing good government from reflection and choice, or whether they are forever destined to depend for their political constitutions on accident and force. [The Federalist, No. 1]

Certainly, their recent experience with the British and with the Articles of Confederation would have led to this concern, but it still doesn’t answer the question of how they were able to write our Constitution. I believe our beloved prophet, Ezra Taft Benson, put his finger on the answer when he said:

It would be erroneous for us, however, to conclude that the document was the sole genius of the Founding Fathers. Theirs was a combined wisdom derived from heavenly inspiration, knowledge of political government from ages past, and the crucible of their own experience. [The Constitution: A Heavenly Banner (Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book, 1986), p. 1]

The Assembly

For our purpose today, let’s start by looking at some of the delegates. Who were they? What was their background, experience, knowledge? Thomas Jefferson had said of the Convention, after he heard who the delegates were, that it was “an assembly of demigods” (Jefferson to John Adams, 30 August 1787, in The Adams-Jefferson Letters, vol. 2, ed. Lester J. Cappon [Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press, 1959], 196).

John Adams said:

The deliberate union of so great and various a people in such a place is, without all partiality or prejudice, if not the greatest exertion of human understanding, the greatest single effort of national deliberation that the world has ever seen. [John Adams, 26 December 1787, quoted in Clinton Rossiter, ed., 1787: The Grand Convention (New York: Macmillan, 1966), p. 11]

And Albert J. Beveridge, quoted by Everett Wilson in his book about the Constitution, stated:

The American system was devised by the ablest group of men who ever appeared at the same time in the same country throughout the history of the world. Just as former times produced masterpieces of literature, philosophy, and art, just as our own period is producing masterpieces in science and commercial organization, so the architects of the American plan of self-disciplined liberty produced a masterpiece of free government. [Quoted by Everett P. Wilson, The Constitution of the United States of America, a Bulwark of Liberty (Chadron, Nebraska: Caxton Printers, 1955), pp. 59­60]

The U.S. Constitution Sesquicentennial Commission asked the question:

Who were the fifty-five men who, in varying degrees, were the framers of our National Constitution? The knowledge concerning some of them is indefinite, but the following facts are substantially correct.

All of them except eight were natives of the colonies. Franklin, the oldest, was 81; Dayton, the youngest, was 26; fourteen were 50 or over; twenty-one were less than 40. Twenty-five were college men. . . .

These men were almost without exception acquainted with public affairs: forty-six had been members of one or both of the houses of the colonial or state legislatures; ten attended state constitutional conventions; sixteen had been or were to be governors or presidents of states. In national affairs forty-two were delegates to the Continental Congress, eight were signers of the Declaration of Independence, six signers of the draft of the Articles of Confederation, seven had attended the Annapolis Convention, and three had been executive officers under the Congress. . . . Two future Presidents of the United States took a prominent part in the proceedings of the convention and one future Vice President. Two others were to be candidates for the highest office in the land and these and one other, candidates for the Vice Presidency. The positions which these men had occupied or were later to fill are indicative of the regard in which they were held by their fellow citizens, and of their character and worth.

The most important man in the convention was George Washington; indeed, his acceptance of the deputyship, made reluctantly and after long consideration, was the initial triumph of the movement and a foreshadowing of success, so great was his prestige. Madison and Randolph, his fellow deputies from Virginia, were very active in the work of the convention. . . . Madison’s great knowledge of political science, the fact that to him more than to any other deputy public life was a profession, and his grasp of the essential problems before the convention and the means by which they could be solved, enabled him to become the principal architect of the Constitution.

Franklin was the seer of the convention. His great age and infirmities forbade very active participation, and he was probably responsible for little of the detailed results; but his very presence gave the gathering importance and dignity and his advice must have been eagerly sought and carefully considered. He and Washington were the two great harmonizers. Washington presided over the formal sessions, taking little part in the debate, but in committee of the whole and in the private conferences which were such an important underpinning of the formal structure as it arose, he was in constant consultation with his colleagues. Also, as the character of the plan developed, there was a general recognition of the fact that he must be a leading man in the early operation of the new government, and this of necessity influenced its shape. [History of the Formation of the Union Under the Constitution, Sol Bloom, U.S. Constitution Sesquincentennial Commission (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1941), pp. 16­17]

Years after the convention, James Madison had written:

I feel it a duty to express my profound and solemn conviction, derived from my intimate opportunity of observing and appreciating the views of the Convention, collectively and individually, that there never was an assembly of men, charged with a great and arduous trust, who were more pure in their motives, or more exclusively or anxiously devoted to the object committed to them, than were the members of the Federal Convention of 1787. [Debates on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution, arr. Jonathan Elliot, vol. 5 (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co., 1901), p. 122]

They were extremely knowledgeable of government and had gained considerable experience as a result of serving in their various states. Some twenty-three of the signers had served in the War for Independence and were intimately familiar with deprivation and suffering caused by a weak central government and the lack of a strong union. George Washington had served eight years as their commander and understood, better than most, this need. Even those who hadn’t felt the direct effects of a weak and inefficient government at Valley Forge, Morristown, New York, and other battle sites had witnessed the deteriorating state of their republic after the war: commerce problems, rebellion, inflation caused by the printing of money. This was enough to convince even the most ardent supporters of the Articles of Confederation that something had to be done to render the Articles effective to the needs of the day.

Their individual and collective experience gained from the war and their involvement in state and national government would help. Some had helped write their state constitutions; but they needed more–an understanding of what had been tried in the past and what other ideas and opinions and options were available to them. Most of the delegates were ardent students of government and had read extensively on the subject. In fact, during the previous two decades, America had been awash with political tracts and writings on government and liberty. It was of deep interest to me to find their major source of ideas for the Constitution:

Two professors, Donald S. Lutz and Charles S. Hyneman, have reviewed an estimated 15,000 items, and closely read 2,200 books, pamphlets, newspaper articles, and monographs with explicitly political content printed between 1760 and 1805. . . .

From these items, [they] identified 3,154 references to other sources. The source most often cited by the founding fathers was the Bible, which accounted for 34 percent of all citations. The fifth book of the Bible, Deuteronomy, because of its heavy emphasis on biblical law, was referred to frequently. The most cited thinkers were not deists and philosophers, but conservative legal and political thinkers who often were also Christians. [John Eidsmoe, Christianity and the Constitution (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1987), pp. 51­52]

The Hand of Providence

Now we have so far reviewed two elements mentioned by President Benson–experience and knowledge. What about heavenly inspiration? Did any of the delegates attribute the writing of the Constitution to inspiration?

The challenge before the delegates at the Constitutional Convention of 1787 was how to protect the individual’s basic rights and, at the same time, provide for a union. Before the convention started, George Washington, who was elected president of the convention, said:

It is probable that no plan we propose will be adopted. Perhaps another dreadful conflict is to be sustained. If to please the people we offer what we ourselves disapprove, how can we afterwards defend our work? Let us raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair. The event is in the hand of God. [Frank Donovan, Mr. Madison's Constitution (New York: Dodd, Mead and Co., 1965), p. 39]

A year later, the day after Massachusetts ratified the Constitution, Washington wrote to another friend, Lafayette, of the miraculous nature of their efforts:

It appears to me, then, little short of a miracle, that the Delegates from so many different States (which States you know are also different from each other in their manners, circumstances and prejudices) should unite in forming a system of national government. [Letter of 7 February 1788, in John C. Fitzpatrick, ed., Writings of George Washington (1788), vol. 29 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1931­1944), p. 409]

As president of the convention, George Washington also said:

The hand of Providence has been conspicuous in all this, that he must be worse than an infidel that lacks faith, and more than wicked that has not gratitude enough to acknowledge his obligations. [Washington to Brigadier-General Nelson, 20 August 1778; quoted by William J. Johnson, George Washington the Christian (Milford, Michigan: Mott Media, 1919, 1976), pp. 119­20]

Many of the other delegates also recognized divine inspiration in their work. Writing in The Federalist (No. 37), James Madison, often referred to as the Father of the Constitution, wrote:

It is impossible for the man of pious reflection not to perceive in it a finger of that Almighty hand which has been so frequently and signally extended to our relief in the critical stages of the revolution.

Alexander Hamilton, famous as the originator of The Federalist and author of 51 of the papers, said:

For my own part, I sincerely esteem it a system, which, without the finger of God, never could have been suggested and agreed upon by such a diversity of interests. [Paul Leicester Ford, ed., Essays on the Constitution of the United States (Brooklyn, New York: Historical Printing Club, 1892), p. 288]

In a letter to the editor of the Federal Gazette in 1755, Benjamin Franklin said:

I have so much Faith in the general Government of the world by Providence, that I can hardly conceive a Transaction of such momentous Importance to the Welfare of Millions now existing, and to exist in the Posterity of a great Nation, should be suffered to pass without being in some degree influenc’d, guided, and governed by that omnipotent, omnipresent, and beneficent Ruler, in whom all inferior spirits live, and move, and have their Being. [Albert H. Smyth, ed., The Writings of Benjamin Franklin, vol. 9 (New York: Haskell House Publishers, 1970), p. 702]

Such comments were not limited to delegates themselves, but came from others who had studied the events concerned as well. Daniel Webster, a noted defender of the Constitution, although not a delegate, said in 1847:

I regard it (the Constitution) as the work of the purest patriots and the wisest statesmen that ever existed, aided by the smiles of a benignant Providence; . . . it almost appears a Divine interposition in our behalf . . . . [T]he hand that destroys the Constitution rends our Union asunder for ever. [The Works of Daniel Webster, vol. 1 (Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1851), p. 404]

And we can look today for great students of the Constitution, one being my fellow apostle, Elder Dallin H. Oaks. He recently spoke here in Provo, while most of you students were away during the summer, and cited five inspired fundamentals of that document:

1. The separation of powers in the three branches of govt;

2. The division of powers between the states and federal government;

3. The Bill of Rights;

4. The principle of popular sovereignty;

5. There is divine inspiration in the fundamental underlying premise of our whole constitutional order, the rule of law and not of men.

All the blessings we enjoy under the United States Constitution are dependent upon the rule of law. That is why President J. Reuben Clark said, “Our allegiance run[s] to the Constitution and to the principles which it embodies, and not to individuals.” The rule of law is the basis of liberty. [The Divinely Inspired Constitution, speech given 5 July 1987 at the Freedom Festival Religious Service, Provo, Utah, pp. 11­12]

Concerning the fourth of these great truly divine principles inspired by the fundamentals, that of the sovereignty of the people, Elder Oaks also said:

Perhaps the most important of the great fundamentals of our inspired Constitution is the principle of popular sovereignty: The people are the source of government power. Along with many religious people, Latter-day Saints affirm that God gave the power to the people, and the people consented to a constitution that delegated certain powers to the government. Sovereignty is not inherent in a state or nation just because it has the power that comes from force of arms. Sovereignty does not come from the divine right of a king, who grants his subjects such power as he pleases or is forced to concede, as in Magna Charta. The sovereign power is in the people. I believe this is one of the great meanings in the revelation which tells us that God established the Constitution of the United States.

“That every man may act . . . according to the moral agency which I have given unto him, that every man may be accountable for his own sins in the day of judgment.

“Therefore, it is not right that any man should be in bondage one to another.

“And for this purpose have I established the Constitution of this land.” [D&C 101:78­80]

In other words, the most desirable condition for the effective exercise of God-given moral agency is a condition of maximum freedom and responsibility. In this condition men are accountable for their own sins and cannot blame their political conditions on their bondage to a king or a tyrant. This condition is achieved when the people are sovereign, as they are under the Constitution God established in our nation. From this it follows that the most important words in the United States Constitution are the words in the preamble: “We, the people of the United States . . . , do ordain and establish this Constitution.”

President Ezra Taft Benson expressed the fundamental principle of popular sovereignty when he said, “We [the people] are superior to government and should remain master over it, not the other way around” (The Constitution: A Heavenly Banner [Salt Lake City, Utah; Deseret book, 1986], p. 7). The Book of Mormon explains that principle in these words:

“An unrighteous king doth pervert the ways of all righteousness . . . .

“Therefore, choose you by the voice of this people, judges, that ye may be judged according to the laws. . . .

“Now it is not common that the voice of the people desireth anything contrary to that which is right; but it is common for the lesser part of the people to desire that which is not right; therefore this shall ye observe and make it your law–to do your business by the voice of the people.” [Mosiah 29:23­26]

Popular sovereignty necessarily implies popular responsibility. Instead of blaming their troubles on a king or other sovereign, all citizens must share the burdens and responsibilities of governing. As the Book of Mormon teaches, “the burden should come upon all the people, that every man might bear his part” (Mosiah 29:34). [Oaks, The Divinely Inspired Constitution, pp. 9­10]

Taking on the Responsibility

As a nation, we’ve been showered with numerous blessings that have been a direct result of our Constitution. Unfortunately, many of us have forgotten that with the receipt of such blessings also comes responsibility. Probably our most important responsibility is to ensure the continuance of freedoms that we have received for our children and for our grandchildren. Patriotism is not a spectator sport. We must become involved in the process of freedom.

Wherefore, honest men and wise men should be sought for diligently, and good men and wise men ye should observe to uphold. [D&C 98:10]

Further, we need to understand the great principles of the founding documents. How can we “befriend . . . that law which is the constitutional law of the land” if we are not familiar with it and its genesis? We need to drink deeply at the wellspring of this great document.

We must also recognize that, as President John Adams said, “We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions, unbridled by morality and religion.” We are facing this situation to a degree in the world today. Therefore, we have the responsibility to remain unspotted from the world, to be upright and honest in all of our dealings, and to set the example for that which we have been given. Francis Grund wrote:

The American Constitution is remarkable for its simplicity; but it can only suffice a people habitually correct in their actions, and would be utterly inadequate to the wants of a different nation. Change the domestic habits of the Americans, their religious devotion, and their high respect for morality, and it will not be necessary to change a single letter of the Constitution in order to vary the whole form of their government. [Francis J. Grund, The Americans, in Their Moral. Social, and Political Relations (Boston: Marsh, Capen and Lyon, 1837), p. 171]

As Latter-day Saints we should take to heart what the late President David O. McKay counseled: “Next to being one in worshiping God there is nothing in this world upon which this Church should be more united than in upholding . . . the Constitution of the United States” (CR, October 1939, p. 105).

We, as a people, have been the recipients of some of God’s most choice blessings, and I believe they came only as a result of the dedication and sacrifice of our forefathers. We need, at this time and in this place, to follow the counsel of yet another great American, Abraham Lincoln, who said:

Let every American, every level of liberty, every well wisher to his posterity [support the Constitution.] Let . . . it be taught in schools, in seminaries, and in colleges; let it be written in primers, spelling-books, and in almanacs; let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls, and enforced in courts of justice. And in short, let it become the political religion of the nation; [and in particular, establish a reverence for the Constitution.] [Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, ed. John G. Nicolay and John Hay, vol. 1 (New York: Francis D. Tandy Co., 1905), p. 43]

I love this great land of the free. I always feel a great feeling of pride within my very soul whenever the flag passes by. I was taught this as a young child when Dad would always make us get out of the car when the American flag passed by in a parade. These feelings have only increased over the years as I stood as a young Boy Scout in early-morning flag-raising ceremonies and pledged allegiance to the flag each day throughout the years I attended school.

Yes, and there have been times on foreign soil when after a battle I stood and, in dirty dungarees and with a rifle in hand, saluted our flag as it was raised to the top of a handmade flagpole.

Oh, thus be it ever, when free men shall stand

Between their loved homes and the war’s desolation!

Blest with vict’ry and peace, may the heav’n-rescued land

Praise the Pow’r that hath made and preserved us a nation!

Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,

And this be our motto: “In God is our Trust!”

And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave

O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

[Hymns, 1985, no. 340]

May God bless each of us with a desire to gain a real understanding of the blessings granted to us under this great Constitution of the United States of America. And may we have the strength and the courage to defend and uphold it for our generation and for all who follow after us. This is my humble prayer, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.