Each town of early-day Utah was an ecclesiastical unit, with social and political tendencies. The ecclesiastical unit was based on the idea of individual power and self-development through religious principles. Each individual was responsible in this religious scheme to his God; each was independent to grow intellectually and morally in the sense that man is in the image of God. It is necessary to say this m order that we may understand the democracy of the town government of early-day Utah. Politically and socially, all rights were inherent in the people.

The power that held the people together was the religious feeling; and with this the economic interests common to all. In these social groups, the desire was to live and let live. The people were intensely practical; the physical conditions of the country made them so. They were compelled to apply their religious idealism to the immediate problems in hand.

The two ideals fundamental in traditional American thought are the ideal of individual freedom to compete unrestrictedly for the resources of the country, and the ideal of democracy, where the government is for all the people and by all the people. American democracy has always been based on free lands. Such ideals were always present in the colonizing of the valleys of Utah. But we must not forget that the “Mormon” colonists were always religious in their organization in form as well as in purpose.

Source: Elder Levi Edgar Young
General Conference, April 1921

Topics: Freedom; Society

Edmund Randolph of Virginia described the effort to deal with the issue at the Constitutional Convention:

“The general object was to produce a cure for the evils under which the United States labored; that in tracing these evils to their origins, every man had found it in the turbulence and follies of democracy.”

Source: Edmun Randolph

Topics: Democracy; US Constitution

It is only by the help of the Spirit of the Almighty that will bring us to the point where justice and righteousness can at least approximately be approached. We have had contentions in our own nation during the recent months of railroad strikes, coal strikes, and other contentions that have threatened the very existence of our government; and also there have grown up in our nation, secret organizations, combinations of men, no doubt desiring to protect their own selfsh interests, even though those interests should conflict with the strict principles of justice. Some of these organizations like the Ku Klux Klan have undertaken to administer what they call justice, independent of Constitutional law, and the rights of men, and they have taken the law into their own hands and have dealt with certain people in a way which can only result in disorder, turmoil, strife, and in the breaking down of Constitutional law. For these Secret organizations undertake to administer punishment upon men and women, irrespective of the laws of the land.

Source: Elder Charles W. Nibley
General Conference, October 1922

Topics: Freedom, Threats to; Government, Downfall

Let Us Possess Ourselves In Patience

Now, let us take to heart the lessons of this morning, brethren and sisters. Do not, during this coming campaign,—I allude to it just simply in that way; I do not want to talk politics, or to have it said I have been talking politics—but in this coming campaign possess yourselves in patience, and do not abuse or misrepresent any other person or party. You have no right to do it. I do not care how strong a partisan you may be on your own side, you have no right to misrepresent the other. You have no right to lie about it or about them. You have no right to commit any kind of injustice. Tell the truth as you understand it before the Lord, but not the whole truth, if that truth includes abusing the other party. Do not misrepresent what other people believe, and say a certain party believes this. Do not do that. Tell them what you believe, if you want to tell them what you understand; make clear and plain the truth as it appears to you, and do not find fault with and abuse or misrepresent others, either parties or persons. Is that politics? Call it what you like, it is the truth, it is the gospel.

Source: President Charles W. Penrose
General Conference, October 1920

Topics: Politics

The Church in all the Affairs of Life

Only the other day I was asked, in the course of conversation with an intelligent gentleman, not a member of our Church: “Is the ‘Mormon’ Church in politics?”

I answered him: “Most assuredly it is in politics, and also in business, in statesmanship, in all the affairs of life, teaching the people to do what is right so far as it possibly can.”

“Well, has the Church any candidates in the pending election?”

“Yes, indeed,” said I, “the Church has a full ticket, and is counseling its members just how to vote.”

Now, let me tell you just how you should vote, just as I told him. The Church is telling its members to look upon the franchise as a sacred gift, to exercise it according to their very best judgment before the Lord, and the Church’s ticket is the ticket of the best men, according to the best judgment of the people, to whichever party they belong. Vote the party ticket if you honestly feel that to be best, or vote for the men you think will most effectively subserve the needs of country, state, and people.

Source: Elder James E. Talmage
General Conference, October 1920

Topics: Voting

Our Religion Makes For Honesty And Tolerance

You have your agency and you know that you are free; therefore do not offend the Lord, by going contrary to what you believe, honestly and after thought and prayer, to be right. But above all, do not say that because your brother does not see things just as you do in the political field, he necessarily is wrong. I was very much touched by the president’s words—that he was pained at the evidence that had come to view, that some brethren condemn their fellows because these do not look on things as those of the first class do in matters political. Our religion should purify our politics, and make us honest, tolerant, and bold, to do that which is required of citizens, and to exercise our rights at the polls. Our religion should make us honest in business, truthful in all our doings. To be so is to be in line with the keeping of the commandments of the Lord.

Source: Elder James E. Talmage
General Conference, October 1920

Topics: Politics

In our stake, when I see men that become excited over politics, I have said that they are like some patients that I have had—when the fever gets to 105, I look for them to be delirious, and I pull out my thermometer and test their temperature. When it is 105 they ofttimes say things that they do not know that they are saying. So when I meet a brother who is radical and talking upon the street too loud, I reach for my thermometer, and if his political temperature is 105, I say, “Brother, you are delirious, you ought to go home for fear that somebody else will catch the contagion.”

Source: Elder Thomas D. Rees
General Conference, October 1920

Topics: Politics

When you stop to think about it, you must conclude that this Church has been right throughout its whole history upon all of the important moral questions that have affected our welfare. In the nature of things there is not within the United States a people more patriotic than the Latter-day Saints. I know of no sect that assumes the position that the constitution of the United States was written as it were by the very finger of God. Surely that belief is an inspiration to the highest patriotism. You remember reading in the history of the Church that this people were accused in Missouri of being opposed to slavery. In that slave-holding state such an attitude became one of the reasons of our persecution and drivings. You remember that the first message that flashed across the completed telegraph line from here to the Atlantic ocean was a message of congratulation from Brigham Young to Abraham Lincoln that the Union was preserved or was in the way of preservation.

Source: President Heber J. Grant
General Conference, April 1920

Topics: Civil War; Heavenly Interest in Human Events; Morality

The world today socially and politically is rocking. It is sitting upon a volcano. God only knows what tomorrow will bring forth. And why is there so much unrest and instability all over the world? Why is every man’s hand raised against his neighbor? Why has the world with the two thoughts “money and fun” turned the world into a fool’s paradise? The answer to these questions, is found in a very short sentence:—The world has lost faith in God. With the loss of faith, it lost the sense of moral obligation.

Source: Elder Nephi Jensen
General Conference, April 1920

Topics: Morality

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