When I think of these wise men, George Washington and Jefferson and Franklin, I think of men who were servants of God, raised up for the purpose of establishing the Constitution and establishing this great government. Thomas Jefferson was endowed from on high with prophetic power. If you will study the Doctrines of Democracy as advocated by Thomas Jefferson one hundred thirty years ago, you will find that in many respects we have departed from the principles that made us a great and powerful nation.

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

Topics: America, Heritage; Christianity; Government, Downfall

We have over three thousand missionaries in the world and many of them will be led to homes which before were closed but will now be open to hear their testimonies. It is our responsibility to carry the message of the gospel not only to the civilized world but also to those who are not considered to be so civilized. All this has been made possible because the Lord in his wisdom saw the necessity of giving us a nation in which we could thrive. In no other nation under heaven could the Church have been organized and gone forward as we have in this nation. The founding of the United States was not an accident. The giving to us of the Constitution of the United States was not an accident. Our Heavenly Father knew what would be needed, and so he paved the way to give us the Constitution. It came under the influence of prayer, and he guided those who framed that wonderful document.

Source: President George Albert Smith
General Conference, April 1947

Topics: Heavenly Interest in Human Events

Blessings Of Democracy

I hope that the membership of this Church will not be deceived into thinking that other plans, other forms of government, other systems of direction whatsoever, are desirable. I want to say to you without any hesitation that no form of government in the world can be compared favorably with the government God gave to us. This is his plan. Then after giving us our civil government, preparing the way for governing ourselves, if you will, he organized the Church and gave it the name of his Beloved Son, and then directed that we share that information with all his children. What a commission, a divine commission!

Source: President George Albert Smith
General Conference, April 1947

Topics: America, Heritage; Heavenly Interest in Human Events

[The Book of Mormon], as has been testified before, is the very embodiment of the spirit of Americanism. We hear a lot about that in these days. In its simplicity it lays down those fundamental principles of democracy upon which every republican form of government must be based and founded. It teaches us that there should be no king to dictate upon this land. It teaches us that the will of the people, the voice of the people shall govern, and that minorities should submit to majorities. It teaches us also that the time may come when majorities will go wrong, “and when that time cometh,” saith the Lord, “then my judgments shall hang over this people.”

Source: President Anthony W. Ivins
General Conference, October 1923

Topics: Book of Mormon

I am devoutly grateful that I am an American. It is a proud thing to be an American. I firmly believe that the flag that waves over you and over me is the best flag that ever waved over any land or any people—made so by the heroism of the men who founded this Republic and who have maintained it. My heart was touched with the beautiful and dignified tribute which a distinguished visitor, General Summerall, paid to this people yesterday morning. I hope we deserve it, and I believe that we do. I am sure that “Mormonism” has in it the genius of the best civilization the world has ever seen. All good Latter-day Saints are good citizens. Poor citizenship is an evidence of poor affiliation with the Church. It cannot be otherwise. I am grateful for the government that shelters us, for the opportunity which it gives to its citizens. I love this land of ours. The Almighty in his infinite kindness has established our feet in the tops of the eternal hills and given us a place where the sun shines more days in the year than in any other place, where the skies are bluer and the water clearer. We ought to be good citizens, and we ought to stand firmly for the maintenance of the principles bred in the institutions which we love and cherish.

Source: Elder Bryant S. Hinckley
General Conference, October 1927

Topics: Citizenship

You brethren also know that from the Rio Grande down to the Horn there is no constitutional government except those that are founded primarily upon our own Constitution. In Mexico the revolutionary party which more than a century and a quarter ago rebelled against the king of Spain and established a republic, copied almost verbatim, and practically overnight, our Constitution, and made it their own. Neither Mexico nor the others to the South interpret their Constitutions as we interpret ours. They have different standards and different canons of interpretation, for their fundamental system is the civil law, while ours is the common law. But the great essentials of that document, the Constitution of the United States, which God Himself inspired, is the law of Zion, the Americas.

Source: President J. Reuben Clark, Jr.
General Conference, October 1942

Topics: America, Example; Law; US Constitution

THESE are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated.

Source: Thomas Paine

Topics: Responsibility

Why do we hold these conference meetings and all other meetings in the Church? They are held for the good of the individual—for your son and my son, your daughter and mine. The Lord has said,

”. . . if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!

“And now, if your joy will be great with one soul that you have brought unto me into the kingdom of my Father, how great will be your joy if you should bring many souls unto me!” (D&C 18:15-16.)

The whole purpose of the organization of this great Church, so complete so perfect, is to bless the individual. How that stands out in striking contrast, in opposition, to the claim of the communist who says that the individual is but a spoke in the wheel of the state, that the state is all in all, the individual being but a contributing factor to the perpetuation and strength of the state.

That idea is diametrically opposed to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus sought for a perfect society by perfecting the individual. He recognized the fallacy in the dream of those who hoped to make a perfect society out of imperfect individuals. In all his labors and associations, he sought the perfection of the individual.

The goal he always set before his followers was the emancipation of men and women from greed, from anger, from jealousy, from hatred, from fear; and in their place he hoped to bring about a complete and normal development of the individual’s divine powers through right thinking and unselfish, efficient service.

Source: President David O. McKay
General Conference, April 1965

Topics: Government, Tyranny

The founding fathers of the United States of America were inspired in drafting a constitution that guarantees religious and other freedoms for all. Religious tolerance and changing attitudes helped prepare a people while the conditions created under the umbrella of the U.S. Constitution prepared a location where the restoration of the gospel could take place.

Source: Elder John B. Dickson
General Conference, April 2000

Topics: America, Heritage; Heavenly Interest in Human Events

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