Topic: America, Heritage, Matches 49 quotes.

I do not choose to be a common man. It is my right to be uncommon. I seek opportunity to develop whatever talents God gave me—not security. I do not wish to be a kept citizen, humbled and dulled by having the state look after me. I want to take the calculated risk; to dream and to build, to fail and to succeed. I refuse to barter incentive for a dole. I prefer the challenges of life to the guaranteed existence; the thrill of fulfillment to the stale calm of utopia. I will not trade freedom for beneficence nor my dignity for a handout. I will never cower before any earthly master nor bend to any threat. It is my heritage to stand erect, proud and unafraid; to think and act myself, enjoy the benefit of my creations and to face the world boldly and say—“This, with God’s help, I have done.” All this is what it means to be an American.

Source: Dean Alfange
Originally published in This Week Magazine

Topics: America, Heritage

Now these wise men that the Lord raised up during the days of Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Robert Morris, and Hamilton, provided a pattern of government for us to follow, a pattern of government which has brought to us numerous blessings, a form of government that has made us the strongest, and, may I say, the richest nation in all the world, because it has been founded upon the principle of free agency. Every individual has had the right to do the thing that he has wanted to do in the fields of industry, agriculture, or whatnot. He has had the right to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience. He has had the right to own property. He has had the right to speak as he sees fit, and he has enjoyed the privilege of a great and free press. But, on the other hand, we find that the philosophy of the evil one would teach us that, after all, our government should be centralized in the hands of one or two men. Some advocate changing the form of our government. They advocate regimentation of industry and labor. They advocate that deficit spending is the sure way to prosperity. They would pervert the Constitution. They have endeavored through the various educational systems of this great country to teach us doctrines that are contrary to the doctrines and the principles upon which this great republic is founded. They would restrict us in our religious worship. They would disrupt family relationships. And so as we compare these two great systems, we can readily see that they are but a carry-over from that great battle which took place in the spirit world.

Source: Elder Joseph L. Wirthlin
General Conference, October 1946

Topics: America, Heritage; Free Agency; Government, Downfall

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

Yet some people write that we are in rebellion against the United States; that we would like to set up a republic of our own; that we are a great financial combine of people who are arranging to eventually conquer our country. Our boys who gave their lives in France; our boys who went forth in far greater number than the government had requested, according to our population; our money so freely given for Liberty and Victory bonds; our declaration to all the world, through the Prophet Joseph Smith, that the men who wrote the Constitution of this country were inspired of the living God — all of these things give the lie to all the liars who are perpetually saying that we are opposed to this country. When the Latter-day Saints were being driven from their homes, when they were coming to these Rocky mountains in fulfilment of the prediction of Joseph Smith — they were being expatriated; they were driven from the confines of the United States, and were coming to Mexican soil. Our country was then in trouble with Mexico, and the government called on Brigham Young for 500 men to help fight Mexico. To this call President Young replied: “You shall have your men, and if we have not enough men we will furnish you women;” and within three days the men were ready. That Mormon Battalion went to California and discovered gold. Show to me, if you can, in all the history of the world another case of a people being expatriated, being driven from their own country, from their own lands which they had purchased, being driven out from a beautiful city, the last remnant of them crossing the Mississippi river in the dead of winter, on the ice, nine babies being born during the night of that terrible expulsion, with no shelter but their mother’s breasts, going forth on their journey of a thousand miles in the wilderness, after having appealed to the president of their republic, who could only say: “Your cause is just, but we can do nothing for you” — show me another people, I say, who under like circumstances would have furnished 500 men to fight their country’s battles! Show me greater patriotism and loyalty to country than this! It can’t be done. Allow me to announce that from the day of Joseph Smith to this identical day, the leaders of this people have had absolute respect, love and reverence for their country. Allow me to announce further that we are patriotic Americans to the core, and that we have learned it, many of us, at our mother’s knees, where we said our prayers. We believe absolutely in the inspiration of God to the men who framed our Constitution.

Source: President Heber J. Grant
General Conference, October 1919

Topics: America, Heritage

An Appeal For Loyalty To The Constitution

That Sabbath day after the dedicatory exercises of the monument of Paul Revere, an old priest stood before hundreds of Italians in the old church near by and spoke on the “God-given Constitution of the United States.” It did my heart good to see those alien people pay deference to our flag and to Paul Revere. Herein is a lesson. You Italians, you Germans, and French, you Scandinavians and all other foreigners who have joined the Church and come to America have found freedom and liberty as you have never known before, and you may rest assured that this is a country blessed of God, and its Constitution was written by men who were God-inspired. Be true to your country and its Constitution which is for all time, for never can anything better take its place. The ideal of America was stated by President Grover Cleveland in Philadelphia at the centennial exercises in honor of the drafting of the Constitution in 1887. Said President Cleveland: “When we look down one hundred years and see the origin of our Constitution, when we contemplate all its trials and triumphs, when we realize how completely the principles upon which it is based have met every national need and every national peril, how devoutly should we say with Franklin, ‘God governs in the affairs of men,’ and how solemn should be the thought that to us is delivered this ark of the people’s covenant and to us sealed with the test of a century. It has been found sufficient in the past, and it will be found sufficient in all the years to come, if American people are true to their sacred trust. Another centennial day will come, and millions yet unborn will inquire concerning our stewardship and the safety of the Constitution. God grant they may find it unimpaired; and as we rejoice to-day in the patriotism and devotion of those who lived one hundred years ago, so may those who follow us rejoice in our fidelity and love for Constitutional liberty.

Source: Elder Levi Edgar Young
General Conference, October 1940

Topics: America, Heritage

We believe that the Lord has been preparing that when he should bring forth his work, that, when the set time should fully come, there might be a place upon his footstool where sufficient liberty of conscience should exist, that his Saints might dwell in peace under the broad panoply of constitutional law and equal rights. In this view we consider that the men in the Revolution were inspired by the Almighty to throw off the shackles of the mother government, with her established religion. For this cause were Adams, Jefferson, Franklin, Washington, and a host of others inspired to deeds of resistance to the acts of the King of Great Britain.

Source: Brigham Young
Discourses of Brigham Young, p. 359.

Topics: America, Heritage; Heavenly Interest in Human Events

Our Country Under Divine Guidance

No nation has been more greatly blessed than has the United States. We live in a land which has been called choice above all other lands by divine pronouncement. The Lord has watched over it with a jealous care and has commanded its people to serve Him lest His wrath be kindled against them and His blessings be withdrawn. Our government came into existence through divine guidance. The inspiration of the Lord rested upon the patriots who established it, and inspired them through the dark days of their struggle for independence and through the critical period which followed that struggle when they framed our glorious Constitution which guarantees to all the self-evident truth proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence, “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 is to say, it is the right of every soul to have equal and unrestricted justice before the law, equal rights to worshp according to the dictates of conscience and to labor according to the individual inclinations, independently of coercion or compulsion. That this might be, the Lord has said, “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.” (D.&C. 101:80)

The founders of this nation were men of humble faith. Many of them saw in vision a glorious destiny for our government, provided we would faithfully continue in the path of justice and right with contrite spirits and humble hearts, accepting the divine truths which are found in the Holy Scriptures. The appeal of these men has echoed down the passing years with prophetic warning to the succeeding generations, pleading with them to be true to all these standards which lay at the foundation of our government. This country was founded as a Christian nation, with the acceptance of Jesus Christ as the Redeemer of the world. It was predicted by a prophet of old that this land would be a land of liberty and it would be fortified against all other nations as long as its inhabitants would serve Jesus Christ; but should they stray from the Son of God, it would cease to be a land of liberty and His anger be kindled against them.

Source: Elder Joseph Fielding Smith
General Conference, April 1943

Topics: America, Destiny; America, Heritage; America, History; Heavenly Interest in Human Events; Responsibility

A hundred and fifty years ago, the founders of our Republic announced the sublime truth that men are free and equal. A century and a half have rolled away since then, and the history of the world has no chapter to compare with the accomplishments of America in that time. Standing on Saxon foundations, and inspired by Latin example, we have done what no race or nation or age has ever accomplished. The American people have founded a Republic on the unlimited suffrage of the millions of souls that inhabit this land. They have worked out the problem that a man, as God created him, may be entrusted with self-government.

Our forebears had a virgin continent to conquer. The fundamental problems they met with hard work and a faith in themselves. They had inherited from their fathers, the ideals of home-life, freedom of religion, the free state, the public school, and the lands of the vast continent to till, on which they built their homes.

Source: Elder Levi Edgar Young
General Conference, April 1937

Topics: America, Heritage; Free Agency

Mormonism is pre-eminently an American religion, as was more fully presented by the First Presidency this morning. It stands for America, North and South, and particularly for the government of the United States. It teaches that this western hemisphere is a land choice above all other lands—a land of liberty dedicated to freedom and righteousness. The Constitution of the United States is believed in with religious devotion, that its framers were heaven-inspired. And well may such a belief be cherished.. Gladstone, the great English premier, said of it:

“As far as I can see the American Constitution is the greatest and most wonderful work ever struck off at one time by the brain and purpose of man.”

Source: Elder Charles H. Hart
General Conference, October 1928

Topics: America, Heritage

We Should Not Be Led Astray By Fallacies

In these days of confusion, when the Constitution of Our country is assailed, by those who have no understanding of the purpose of God regarding this great country, it behooves those who do understand to consider seriously and faithfully, the benefits that will flow to us by honoring and sustaining the government that was reared under the direction of our heavenly Father.

We are a peculiar people in many ways, and in this particularly are we peculiar, in that we believe that the constitution of the United States was inspired by our heavenly Father, and he has told us that he raised up the very men who should frame the Constitution of the United States. Knowing that, we should not be led astray by the fallacies of individuals whose selfishness inclines them to attack that which our heavenly Father has prepared for the people of this land.

Source: Elder George Albert Smith
General Conference, October 1924

Topics: America, Heritage; Responsibility; US Constitution, Inspired

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