Our Attitude Towards The Constitution

Is it to be wondered at, brethren and sisters, that the Latter-day Saints as a people have profound respect for the Constitution of the United States? We believe that the Constitution was inspired of the Lord. If other people draw away or lose their interest, or their faith in the Constitution and the flag of our country, the Latter-day Saints will be expected to rally around it. We propose to maintain the Constitution and all that it stands for. Our children are taught to respect the flag and to honor the law-givers of the nation. In Scout law, our boys are taught to be obedient and to honor the law, to be honest, to be truthful, to be upright. They do not always have a good example set before them by men of influence and men of power in the nation, men who have rightly earned the designation of “bootleggers.” We hope that the Scouts who are growing up will be safeguarded against the pernicious example of these men.

Source: President Rudger Clawson
General Conference, April 1928

Topics: US Constitution, Defend; US Constitution, Inspired

Jefferson And Rousseau

Thomas Jefferson was the author of the Declaration, though some of its phrases were current in that day—common property. Jefferson, heaven-inspired, breathed into them the breath of life and made them live forever. It was a glorious achievement. “All men are created equal.” This phrase is Rousseau’s—he whose pen kindled the fierce fires of the French Revolution. It does not mean, of course, that all men are equal in intelligence and capacity, any more than they are equal in stature or in weight. But all have equal rights to life, to liberty, to the pursuit of happiness, and are entitled to equal opportunities for possession and promotion.

Source: Elder Orson F. Whitney
General Conference, October 1926

Topics: Rights

The faith of the Latter-day Saints and the teaching that I have had since I was a child at my mother’s knee, as well as from this stand, is that the Constitution of our country was written by men inspired of the Lord God Almighty. Therefore we, as Latter-day Saints, more than any other people, ought to be supporters of the Constitution, and all constitutional law.

Source: President Heber J. Grant
General Conference, April 1926

Topics: Responsibility; US Constitution, Inspired

I believe that it is my duty and your duty to teach our children concerning this great God-inspired Constitution, this great law of liberty which he has given to this world, and which was never given before to any nation in any land. Never before has there been a representative government of this kind. Republics have been tried, hundreds of times, thousands of years ago, but never was there anything like this Government.

Source: Bishop Charles W. Nibley
General Conference, April 1925

Topics: Education; US Constitution

The world has seen many civilizations rise and fall, most of which have been founded upon the lust for power, wealth and dominion over others. We have noticed this in the old civilization of Europe. Such was the condition in other parts of the world, whereas the Constitution of our great country was established by men who were inspired of the Lord, and this land of America was redeemed by the shedding of blood; and upon this continent, this land of Zion, there is being established a better and a higher type of civilization, based upon human liberty and freedom.

Source: Elder John Wells
General Conference, April 1925

Topics: Free Agency

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

By natural means, as the Lord always operates for the accomplishment of his purposes, means so simple that the thoughtless and unbelieving do not see the manifestation of his power, he brought the Puritans from the old world to New England, the Dutch to New York, the English Cavaliers to Virginia and the French to New Orleans, a combination of races which, paradoxical as it may appear, was just calculated to give us the composite America who made the United States of America what it is, the greatest nation of the world today.

Inspired men have been raised up, who have given us our form of government, and the code of laws by which we are controlled, the best ever evolved by man, so far as we are able to judge. The Lord has strengthened the arms of the patriots who have defended us against the assaults of all those who have come up against us, and delivered us until today, from those who would have torn us asunder. Against all opposition, I sometimes think almost against ourselves, the Lord has brought us to our present condition, until this nation, like a city set on a hill, has become the light of the world.

Source: President Anthony W. Ivins
General Conference, October 1924

Topics: America, Heritage

What can priesthood holders do? There are many things we can do to meet the challenge of the adversary in our day.

First, we should become informed about communism, about socialism, and about Americanism. What better way can one become informed than by first studying the inspired words of the prophets and using that as a foundation; against which to test all other material. This is in keeping with the Prophet Joseph Smith’s motto, “When the Lord commands, do it.” (Ibid., Vol. 2, p. 170.)

The Foundation for Economic Education, Irvington-on-Hudson, New York on which President J. Reuben Clark, Jr., served as a board member, continues to supply sound freedom literature. We should know enough about American free enterprise to be able to defend it. We should know what makes it possible for six percent of humanity—living under our free economy—to produce about one-half of the earth’s developed wealth each year.

We should know why paternalism, collectivism, or unnecessary federal supervision will hold our standard of living down and reduce productivity just as it has in every country where it has been tried. We should also know why the communist leaders consider socialism the highroad to communism.

Source: Elder Ezra Taft Benson
General Conference, October 1961

Topics: Communism; Economics; Responsibility

Decries Conditions In America

I am sure we all love America. I am sure there are no more patriotic people on the face of the earth than the Latter-day Saints; in fact, our belief is that the men who established this country were blessed of God, that they were inspired of God, and as we depart from those things we are not doing that which is pleasing to our Heavenly Father. I think that without doubt we are getting just about as far away as we can at the present time—shall I say, politically. I do not care how you put it. We are starting on the broad path that leads to destruction, and had we stayed in the straight and narrow path we would not need to be arranging to be in a war. The Lord points out the way, and if we walk in it all will be well.

Many of the Latter-day Saints have surrendered their independence; they have surrendered their free thought, politically, and we have got to get back to where we are not surrendering the right. We must stay with the right and if we do so God will bless us.

Source: President Heber J. Grant
General Conference, October 1941

Topics: Freedom, Loss of

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