I have faith that the Constitution will be saved as prophesied by Joseph
Smith. But it will not be saved in Washington. It will be saved by the
citizens of this nation who love and cherish freedom. It will be saved
by enlightened members of this Church—men and women who will subscribe
to and abide by the principles of the Constitution.
The Constitution Requires our Loyalty and Support
I reverence the Constitution of the United States as a sacred document.
To me its words are akin to the revelations of God, for God has placed
his stamp of approval on the Constitution of this land. I testify that
the God of heaven sent some of his choicest spirits to lay the
foundation of this government, and he has sent other choice spirits—even
you who hear my words this day—to preserve it.
We, the blessed beneficiaries, face difficult days in this beloved land,
"a land which is choice above all other lands" (Ether 2:10). It may
also cost us blood before we are through. It is my conviction, however,
that when the Lord comes, the Stars and Stripes will be floating on the
breeze over this people.
May it be so, and may God give us the faith and
the courage exhibited by those patriots who pledged their lives and
fortunes that we might be free, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
The Constitution—A Heavenly Banner
EZRA TAFT BENSON
Ezra Taft Benson was President of The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints when this devotional address was given at Brigham
Young University on 16 September 1986.
On the seventeenth day of September 1987, we commemorate the
two-hundredth birthday of the Constitutional Convention, which gave
birth to the document that Gladstone said is "the most wonderful work
ever struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man" (
William Ewart Gladstone: Life and Public Services, ed. Thomas W. Handford [Chicago: The Dominion Co., 1899], p. 323).
I heartily endorse this assessment, and today I would like to pay
honor—honor to the document itself, honor to the men who framed it, and
honor to the God who inspired it and made possible its coming forth.
Some Basic Principles
To understand the significance of the Constitution, we must first
understand some basic, eternal principles. These principles have their
beginning in the premortal councils of heaven.
The Principle of Agency
The first basic principle is agency. The central issue in the premortal
council was: Shall the children of God have untrammeled agency to choose
the course they should follow, whether good or evil, or shall they be
coerced and forced to be obedient? Christ and all who followed him stood
for the former proposition—freedom of choice; Satan stood for the
latter—coercion and force. The war that began in heaven over this issue
is not yet over. The conflict continues on the battlefield of mortality.
And one of Lucifer's primary strategies has been to restrict our agency
through the power of earthly governments.
Look back in retrospect on almost six thousand years of human history!
Freedom's moments have been infrequent and exceptional. We must
appreciate that we live in one of history's most exceptional moments—in a
nation and a time of unprecedented freedom. Freedom as we know it has
been experienced by perhaps less than one percent of the human family.
The Proper Role of Government
The second basic principle concerns the function and proper role of
government. These are the principles that, in my opinion, proclaim the
proper role of government in the domestic affairs of the nation.
[I]
believe that governments were instituted of God for the benefit
of man; and that he holds men accountable for their acts in relation to
them. . . .
[I]
believe that no government can exist in peace, except such laws
are framed and held inviolate as will secure to each individual the free
exercise of conscience, the right and control of property, and the
protection of life. . . .
[I]
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. [D&C 134:1–2, 5]
In other words, the most important single function of government is to secure the rights and freedoms of individual citizens.
The Source of Human Rights
The third important principle pertains to the source of basic human
rights. Rights are either God-given as part of the divine plan, or they
are granted by government as part of the political plan.
If we accept
the premise that human rights are granted by government, then we must be
willing to accept the corollary that they can be denied by government.
I, for one, shall never accept that premise. We must ever keep in mind
the inspired words of Thomas Jefferson, as found in the Declaration of
Independence:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created
equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable
Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of
Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.
People Are Superior to Governments
The fourth basic principle we must understand is that people are
superior to the governments they form. Since God created people with
certain inalienable rights, and they, in turn, created government to
help secure and safeguard those rights, it follows that the people are
superior to the creature they created.
Governments Should Have Limited Powers
The fifth and final principle that is basic to our understanding of the
Constitution is that governments should have only limited powers. The
important thing to keep in mind is that the people who have created
their government can give to that government only such powers as they,
themselves, have in the first place. Obviously, they cannot give that
which they do not possess.
By deriving its just powers from the governed, government becomes
primarily a mechanism for defense against bodily harm, theft, and
involuntary servitude. It cannot claim the power to redistribute money
or property nor to force reluctant citizens to perform acts of charity
against their will. Government is created by the people. No individual
possesses the power to take another's wealth or to force others to do
good, so no government has the right to do such things either. The
creature cannot exceed the creator.
The Constitution and its Coming Forth
With these basic principles firmly in mind, let us now turn to a
discussion of the inspired document we call the Constitution. My purpose
is not to recite the events that led to the American Revolution—we are
all familiar with these. But I would say this: History is not an
accident. Events are foreknown to God. His superintending influence is
behind the actions of his righteous children.
Long before America was
even discovered, the Lord was moving and shaping events that would lead
to the coming forth of the remarkable form of government established by
the Constitution. America had to be free and independent to fulfill this
destiny. I commend to you as excellent reading on this subject Elder
Mark E. Petersen's book
The Great Prologue (Salt Lake City:
Deseret Book Co., 1975).
As expressed so eloquently by John Adams before
the signing of the Declaration, "There's a Divinity which shapes our
ends" (quoted in
The Works of Daniel Webster, vol. 1 (Boston:
Charles C. Little and James Brown, 1851), p. 133).
Though mortal eyes
and minds cannot fathom the end from the beginning, God does.
God Raised Up Wise Men to Create the Constitution
In a revelation to the Prophet Joseph Smith, the Savior declared, "I
established the Constitution of this land, by the hands of wise men whom
I raised up unto this very purpose" (D&C 101:80). These were not
ordinary men, but men chosen and held in reserve by the Lord for this
very purpose.
Shortly after President Kimball became President of the Church, he
assigned me to go into the vault of the St. George Temple and check the
early records. As I did so, I realized the fulfillment of a dream I had
had ever since learning of the visit of the Founding Fathers to the St.
George Temple. I saw with my own eyes the records of the work that was
done for the Founding Fathers of this great nation, beginning with
George Washington. Think of it, the Founding Fathers of this nation,
those great men, appeared within those sacred walls and had their
vicarious work done for them.
President Wilford Woodruff spoke of it in
these words:
Before I left St. George, the spirits of the dead gathered around me, wanting to know why we did not redeem them. Said they,
"You
have had the use of the Endowment House for a number of years, and yet
nothing has ever been done for us. We laid the foundation of the
government you now enjoy, and we never apostatized from it, but we
remained true to it and were faithful to God."
These were the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and they waited on me for two days and two nights. . . .
I straightway went into the baptismal font and called upon Brother
McCallister to baptize me for the signers of the Declaration of
Independence, and fifty other eminent men. [
Discourses of Wilford Woodruff, sel.
G. Homer Durham (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1946), pp. 160–61]
These noble spirits came there with divine permission—evidence that this
work of salvation goes forward on both sides of the veil.
At a later conference, in April 1898, after he became President of the
Church, President Woodruff declared that "those men who laid the
foundation of this American government and signed the Declaration of
Independence were the best spirits the God of heaven could find on the
face of the earth. They were choice spirits . . . [and] were inspired of
the Lord" (
CR, April 1898, p. 89).
We honor those men today. We are the grateful beneficiaries of their noble work.
The Lord Approved the Constitution
But we honor more than those who brought forth the Constitution. We
honor the Lord who revealed it. God himself has borne witness to the
fact that he is pleased with the final product of the work of these
great patriots.
In a revelation to the Prophet Joseph Smith on August 6, 1833, the
Savior admonished: "I, the Lord, justify you, and your brethren of my
church, in befriending that law which is the constitutional law of the
land" (D&C 98:6).
In the Kirtland Temple dedicatory prayer, given on March 27, 1836, the
Lord directed the Prophet Joseph to say: "May those principles, which
were so honorably and nobly defended, namely, the Constitution of our
land, by our fathers, be established forever" (D&C 109:54).
A few years later, Joseph Smith, while unjustly incarcerated in a cold
and depressing cell of Liberty Jail at Clay County, Missouri, frequently
bore his testimony of the document's divinity: "The Constitution of the
United States is a glorious standard; it is founded in the wisdom of
God. It is a heavenly banner" (
HC 3:304).
How this document accomplished all of this merits our further consideration.
The Document Itself
The Constitution consists of seven separate articles.
The first three
establish the three branches of our government—the legislative, the
executive, and the judicial. The fourth article describes matters
pertaining to states, most significantly the guarantee of a republican
form of government to every state of the Union. Article 5 defines the
amendment procedure of the document, a deliberately difficult process
that should be clearly understood by every citizen. Article 6 covers
several miscellaneous items, including a definition of the supreme law
of the land, namely, the Constitution itself. Article 7, the last,
explains how the Constitution is to be ratified.
After ratification of
the document, ten amendments were added and designated as our Bill of
Rights.
Now to look at some of the major provisions of the document itself. Many
principles could be examined, but I mention five as being crucial to
the preservation of our freedom. If we understand the workability of
these, we have taken the first step in defending our freedoms.
Major Provisions of the Document
The major provisions of the Constitution are as follows.
Sovereignty of the People
First: Sovereignty lies in the people themselves. Every governmental
system has a sovereign, one or several who possess all the
executive, legislative, and judicial powers. That sovereign may be an
individual, a group, or the people themselves.
The Founding Fathers
believed in common law, which holds that true sovereignty rests with the
people. Believing this to be in accord with truth, they inserted this
imperative in the Declaration of Independence: "To secure these rights
[life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness], Governments are
instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the
governed."
Separation of Powers
Second: To safeguard these rights, the Founding Fathers provided for the
separation of powers among the three branches of government—the
legislative, the executive, and the judicial.
Each was to be independent
of the other, yet each was to work in a unified relationship.
As the
great constitutionalist President J. Reuben Clark noted:
It is [the]
union of independence and dependence of these
branches—legislative, executive and judicial—and of the governmental
functions possessed by each of them, that constitutes the marvelous
genius of this unrivalled document. . . . It was here that the divine
inspiration came. It was truly a miracle. [
Church News, November
29, 1952, p. 12]
The use of checks and balances was deliberately designed, first, to make
it difficult for a minority of the people to control the government,
and, second, to place restraint on the government itself.
Limited Powers of Government
Third: The powers the people granted to the three branches of government
were specifically limited. The Founding Fathers well understood human
nature and its tendency to exercise unrighteous dominion when given
authority. A constitution was therefore designed to limit government to
certain enumerated functions, beyond which was tyranny.
The Principle of Representation
Fourth: Our constitutional government is based on the principle of
representation. The principle of representation means that we have
delegated to an elected official the power to represent us. The
Constitution provides for both direct representation and indirect
representation. Both forms of representation provide a tempering
influence on pure democracy. The intent was to protect the individual's
and the minority's rights to life, liberty, and the fruits of their
labors—property. These rights were not to be subject to majority vote.
A Moral and Righteous People
Fifth: The Constitution was designed to work with only a moral and
righteous people. "Our constitution," said John Adams (first
vice-president and second president of the United States), "was made
only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the
government of any other" (John R. Howe, Jr.,
The Changing Political Thought of John Adams, Princeton University Press, 1966, p. 185).
The Crisis of our Constitution
This, then, is the ingenious and inspired document created by these good
and wise men for the benefit and blessing of future generations. It is
now two hundred years since the Constitution was written. Have we been
wise beneficiaries of the gift entrusted to us? Have we valued and
protected the principles laid down by this great document?
At this bicentennial celebration we must, with sadness, say that we have
not been wise in keeping the trust of our Founding Fathers. For the
past two centuries, those who do not prize freedom have chipped away at
every major clause of our Constitution until today we face a crisis of
great dimensions.
The Prophecy of Joseph Smith
We are fast approaching that moment prophesied by Joseph Smith when he said:
Even this Nation will be on the very verge of crumbling to pieces and
tumbling to the ground and when the constitution is upon the brink of
ruin this people will be the Staff up[on] which the Nation shall lean
and they shall bear the constitution away from the very verge of
destruction. [In Howard and Martha Coray Notebook, July 19, 1840, quoted by Andrew F. Ehat and Lyndon W. Cook, comps. and eds.,
The Words of Joseph Smith (Provo, Utah: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1980), p. 416]
The Need to Prepare
Will we be prepared? Will we be among those who will "bear the
Constitution away from the very verge of destruction"?
If we desire to
be numbered among those who will, here are some things we must do:
1. We must be righteous and moral. We must live the gospel
principles—all of them. We have no right to expect a higher degree of
morality from those who represent us than what we ourselves are. To live
a higher law means we will not seek to receive what we have not earned
by our own labor. It means we will remember that government owes us
nothing. It means we will keep the laws of the land. It means we will
look to God as our Lawgiver and the source of our liberty.
2. We must learn the principles of theConstitution and then abide by its precepts. Have we read the
Constitution and pondered it? Are we aware of its principles? Could we
defend it? Can we recognize when a law is constitutionally unsound? The
Church will not tell us how to do this, but we are admonished to do it. I
quote Abraham Lincoln:
Let [the Constitution]
be taught in schools, in seminaries,
and in colleges; let it be written in primers, spelling-books, and in
almanacs; let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative
halls, and enforced in courts of justice. And, in short, let it become
the political religion of the nation. [
Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, ed.
John G. Nicolay and John Hay, vol. 1 (New York: Francis D. Tandy Co.,
1905), p.43]
3. We must become involved in civic affairs. As citizens of this
republic, we cannot do our duty and be idle spectators. It is vital that
we follow this counsel from the Lord: "Honest men and wise men should
be sought for diligently, and good men and wise men ye should observe to
uphold; otherwise whatsoever is less than these cometh of evil"
(D&C 98:10). Note the qualities that the Lord demands in those who
are to represent us. They must be good, wise, and honest. We must be
concerted in our desires and efforts to see men and women represent us
who possess all three of these qualities.
4. We must make our influence felt by our vote, our letters, and our
advice. We must be wisely informed and let others know how we feel. We
must take part in local precinct meetings and select delegates who will
truly represent our feelings.
I have faith that the Constitution will be saved as prophesied by Joseph
Smith. But it will not be saved in Washington. It will be saved by the
citizens of this nation who love and cherish freedom. It will be saved
by enlightened members of this Church—men and women who will subscribe
to and abide by the principles of the Constitution.
The Constitution Requires our Loyalty and Support
I reverence the Constitution of the United States as a sacred document.
To me its words are akin to the revelations of God, for God has placed
his stamp of approval on the Constitution of this land. I testify that
the God of heaven sent some of his choicest spirits to lay the
foundation of this government, and he has sent other choice spirits—even
you who hear my words this day—to preserve it.
We, the blessed beneficiaries, face difficult days in this beloved land,
"a land which is choice above all other lands" (Ether 2:10). It may
also cost us blood before we are through. It is my conviction, however,
that when the Lord comes, the Stars and Stripes will be floating on the
breeze over this people.
May it be so, and may God give us the faith and
the courage exhibited by those patriots who pledged their lives and
fortunes that we might be free, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
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