Some of His Views on Government.
The Constitution of the United States is a glorious standard; it is a heavenly banner; it is like a great tree under whose branches men from all climes can be shielded from the burning rays of an inclement sun: and Mormon as well as Presbyterian, and every other denomination have equal rights to partake of the fruits of this great tree of our national Liberty.
Petition, also, ye goodly inhabitants of the slave States, your legislators to abolish slavery by the year 1850, or now, and save the abolitionist from reproach and ruin, infamy and shame. Pray Congress to pay every man a reasonable price for his slaves out of the surplus revenue arising from the sale of public lands.
Break off the shackles from the poor black man and hire him to labor like other human beings: "For an hour of virtuous Liberty on earth is worth a whole eternity of bondage."
For the accommodation of the people in every state and territory let Congress show their wisdom by granting a national bank, with branches in each state and territory, where the capital stock shall be held by the nation for the mother bank and by the states and territories for the branches, and whose officers and directors shall be elected by the people. The net gains of the mother bank should be applied to the national revenue and that of the branches to the States' and Territories' revenues.
When the people petition for a National Bank, I would use my best endeavors to have their prayers answered, and establish one on national principles to save taxes, and make them the controllers of its ways and means.
Let the people of the whole Union, whenever they find a promise made by the candidate that is not practiced as an officer, hurl the miserable sycophant from his exaltation, as God did Nebuchadnezzar, to crop the grass of the field with a beast's heart among the cattle.
Let the penitentiaries be turned into Seminaries of learning, where intelligence, like the angels of heaven, would banish such fragments of barbarism.
More economy in the National and State Government would make less taxes among the people; and more honesty and familiarity in societies would make less hypocrisy and flattery in all branches of the community; and open, frank, candid decorum toward all men in this boasted land of liberty would beget esteem, confidence, union and love; and the neighbor from any state or any country, whatever color, clime, or tongue, could rejoice when he put his foot on the sacred soil of freedom and exclaim: "The very name of America is fraught with friendship." Thus create confidence! Restore freedom! Break down slavery! Banish imprisonment for debt, and be in love, fellowship and peace with all the world! Remember that honesty is not subject to law; the law is made for transgressors.
Were I the President of the United States, by the voice of a virtuous people, I would honor the old paths of the venerated fathers who carried the ark of Government upon their shoulders with an eye single to the glory of the people; and when that people petitioned to abolish slavery in the slave states, I would use all honorable means to have their prayers granted, and give liberty to the captive by paying the Southern gentleman a reasonable equivalent for his property, that the whole nation might be free indeed.
Rigor and seclusion will never do as much to reform the propensities of man as reason and friendship.
When Egypt was under the superintendency of Joseph it prospered, because he was taught of God; when they oppressed the Israelites, destruction came upon them. When the children of Israel were chosen with Moses at their head, they were to be a peculiar people, among whom God should place His name; their motto was, "The Lord is our law-giver; the Lord is our Judge; the Lord is our King, and He shall reign over us." While in this state they might truly say, "Happy is that people, whose God is the Lord." Their Government was a theocracy; they had God to make their laws and men chosen by God to administer them; He was their God, and they were His people. Moses received the Word of the Lord from God himself; he was the mouth of God to Aaron, and Aaron taught the people, in both civil and ecclesiastical affairs; they were both one, there was no distinction; so it will be when the purposes of God are accomplished; "when the Lord shall be King over the whole earth, and Jerusalem His throne. The law shall go forth from Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem."
This is the only thing that can bring about the "restitution of all things spoken of by all the holy prophets since the world was;" the dispensation of the fullness of times, when God shall gather together all things in one. Other attempts to promote universal peace and happiness in the human family have proved abortive; every effort has failed; every plan and design has fallen to the ground; it needs the wisdom of God, the intelligence of God, the power of God to accomplish this. The world has had a fair trial for six thousand years; the Lord will try the seventh thousand, himself; "He whose right it is will possess the Kingdom and reign until He has put all things under His feet; iniquity will hide its hoary head; Satan will be bound, and the works of darkness destroyed; righteousness will be put to the line, and judgment to the plummet, and 'He that fears the Lord will alone be exalted in that day.'"
We do not believe it is just to mingle religious influence with civil government, whereby one religious society is fostered and another proscribed in its spiritual privileges, and the individual rights of its members as citizens, denied.
We believe that no government can exist in peace except such laws are framed and held inviolable as secured unto each individual the free exercise of conscience, the right and control of property, and the protection of life.
Meddle not with any man for his religion; for all government ought to permit every man to enjoy his religion unmolested. No man is authorized to take away life in consequence of difference of religion, which all laws should govern and protect.
It has been the design of Jehovah from the commencement of the world, and is His purpose now, to regulate the affairs of the world in His own time, and to stand at the head of the universe, and take the reins of government in His own hands. When that is done, judgment will be administered in righteousness; anarchy and confusion will be destroyed, and nations will learn war no more. It is for want of this great governing principle that all this confusion has existed.
We believe that every man should be honored in his station; rulers and magistrates, as such, being placed for the protection of the innocent, and the punishment of the guilty; and that to the laws, all men owe respect and deference, as without them peace and harmony would be supplanted by anarchy and terror; human laws being instituted for the express purpose of regulating our interests as individuals and nations, between man and man, and divine laws given of heaven, prescribing rules on spiritual concerns, for faith and worship, both to be answered by man to his Maker.
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.