Paul and Jenny Hatch married in the St George Temple March 5th 1988.
During this podcast I mentioned the fact that the founders of the American Government had their Temple Proxy Work done for them in the St George Temple back in the day.
A large list of patriots plus other eminent men and women were all endowed as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
The list of the 54 Signers of the Declaration of Independence and others are below!
Samuel Huntington(CN)
Roger Sherman (CN)
William Williams(CN)
Oliver Wolcott(CN)
Thomas McKean (DE)
George Read (DE)
Caeser Rodney (DE)
Button Gwinnett (GA)
Lyman Hall (GA)
George Walton (GA)
* John Adams(MA)
Samuel Adams(MA)
Robert Treat Paine(MA)
Charles Carrol (MD)
Samuel Chase (MD)
William Paca (MD)
Thomas Stone (MD)
Joseph Hewes (NC)
William Hooper (NC)
John Penn (NC)
Josiah Bartlett(NH)
Matthew Thornton (NH)
William Whipple(NH)
Abraham Clark(NJ)
John Hart(NJ)
Francis Hopkinson(NJ)
Richard Stockton (NJ)
John Witherspoon(NJ)
Francis Lewis (NY)
Philip Livinston(NY)
Lewis Morris (NY)
George Clymer(PA)
Benjamin Franklin (PA)
Robert Morris (PA)
John Morton(PA)
George Ross (PA)
Benjamin Rush(PA)
James Smith(PA)
George Taylor (PA)
James Wilson (PA)
William Ellery(RI)
Elbridge Gerry(RI)
Stephen Hopkins(RI)
Thomas Heyward Jr.(SC)
Thomas Lynch, Jr (SC)
Arthur Middleton(SC)
Edward Rutledge (SC)
Carter Braxton(VA)
Benjamin Harrison (VA)
* Thomas Jefferson (VA)
Francis Lightfoot Lee (VA)
Richard Henry Lee (VA)
Thomas Nelson Jr. (VA)
George Wythe (VA)
The work was not done for John Hancock (MA) or William Floyd (NY) at this time
“46 Other Eminent Men”
54 Signers + 46 Others = 100 Eminent Men
* Lord Henry Brougham … English statesman; Lord Chancellor
* Sir Edmund Burke … Irish/English statesman, political author
* Robert Burns … Scottish poet
* Lord George Gordon Byron … English poet
* John Philpot Curran … Irish statesman
* Michael Faraday … English scientist; “Father of Electronics
* Frederick the Great … King of Prussia
* David Garrick … English actor and director
* Johann Wolfgang von Goethe … “Father of German Literature”, statesman
* Henry Grattan … politician; member of Irish parliament
* Washington Irving … American writer, historian, and diplomat
* Thomas Jonathan “Stonewall” Jackson … Confederate general during US Civil War
* Benito Pablo Juárez … Mexican president, statesman
* John Philip Kemble … English Shakespearean actor, director
* Lord Horatio Nelson … English general during the Napoleonic Wars
* Daniel O’Connell … Irish political leader
* Demetrius Parepa [Baron Georgiades de Boyescu of Bucharest] … Wallachian boyar
* Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller … German poet, historian, playwright
* Sir Walter Scott … Scottish historical novelist, playwright and poet
* George Stephenson … English civil engineer and mechanical engineer
* William Makepeace Thackeray … English novelist of the 19th century
* Daniel Webster … American statesman, lawyer, orator; Defender of the Constitution
* William Wordsworth … English Romantic poet
Louis Agassiz … Swiss-American naturalist
John C. Calhoun … American statesman
Count Camillo Benso di Cavour … Italian statesman, diplomat
Thomas Chalmers … Scottish divine and reformer
Henry Clay … U.S. statesman, “The Great Compromiser”
Richard Cobden … English political crusader for free trade
Christopher Columbus … Italian explorer, navigator, colonizer: opened New World
Admiral David Glasgow Farragut … American naval officer
Sir Edward Gibbon … English historian, writer and Member of Parliament
Oliver Goldsmith … Anglo-Irish essayist, poet, novelist, dramatist
Alexander von Humbolt … Prussian geographer, naturalist, explorer, philosopher
Samuel Johnson … English moralist, writer, lexicographer
Baron Justus von Liebig … German chemist; founder of organic chemistry
David Livingstone … Scottish physician, explorer, missionary and abolitionist
Baron Edward George Lytton-Bulwer… English novelist, politician
Martin Luther … German theologian and religious reformer
Thomas Babington Macaulay … English historian, essayist and politician
Napoleon … There is confusion as to which Napoleon: some sources have suggested Charles Lewis Napoleon Bonaparte (Napoleon III) while others assert it’s Napoleon Bonaparte himself
George Peabody … American entrepreneur and philanthropist
Hiram Powers … American neoclassical sculptor
Sir Joshua Reynolds … English painter
William Henry Seward … American senator and Secretary of State
Amerigo Vespucci … Italian explorer, financier, navigator and cartographer
John Wesley … Anglican cleric and theologian; co-founder of Methodism
Additional Men: U.S. PRESIDENTS (1776- 1877)
100 + 15 = 115 Eminent Men
* George Washington
* John Adams
Thomas Jefferson
* James Madison
James Monroe
John Quincy Adams
* Andrew Jackson
William Henry Harrison
John Tyler
James Knox Polk
Zachary Taylor
Millard Fillmore
Franklin Pierce
Abraham Lincoln
Andrew Johnson
(The work was not done at that time for James Buchanan and Martin Van Buren because of their actions against the Latter-day Saints. The work for Ulysses S. Grant was also not done, as he was still living in 1877.)
Additional Men: THE WASHINGTON FAMILY
115 + 7 = 122 Eminent Men total
* Augustine Washington … Father of George Washington
* Lawrence Washington (2) … Half-Brother of George Washington, son of Augustine
* Lawrence Washington … Grandfather of George Washington, Father of Augustine
* John Washington … English, Great-Grandfather of George Washington
* Sir Henry Washington … English, Great-Great Grandfather of George Washington
* Daniel Parke Custis … First husband of Martha (Dandridge) Washington
John Parke Custis … Son of Daniel & Martha (Dandridge) Custis
THE EIGHTY-ONE Eminent Women
“The Eleven Washington Women”
* Martha (Dandridge) Custis Washington … Wife of George Washington
* Mary (Ball) Washington … Mother of George Washington, 2nd wife of Augustine
* Jane (Butler) Washington …1st wife of Augustine Washington
* Mildred (Warner) Washington Gale … Mother of Augustine, Wife of Lawrence
* Anne (Fairfax) Washington Lee… Wife of Lawrence Washington (2)
* Wife of John Washington (Anne Pope) …
* Wife of Henry Washington …
* Wife of Lawrence Washington … (not same as #5)
Martha (Parke) Custis … American; Daughter of Martha Washington
Eleanor (Calvert) Custis Stuart … Step-granddaughter of George Washington
?
* The Remaining 26 Wives of Eminent Men
(10 + 27 = 37)
Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel-Bevern … wife of Frederick II
Abigail (Smith) Adams … wife of John Adams
Mary Anne (Eden) Spalding Brougham … wife of Lord Henry Brougham
Jane Mary (Nugent) Burke … wife of Edmund Burke
Jean Armour Burns … Scottish, wife of Robert Burns
Lady Anna Isabella (Milbanke) Byron … English, wife of Lord Byron
Sarah (Creagh) Curran… Irish, wife of John Philpot Curran
Sarah (Barnard) Faraday … English, wife of Michael Faraday
Eva Maria (Veigel) Garrick … wife of David Garrick
Christiane (Vulpius) Goethe … Prussian, wife 0f Goethe
Henrietta (Fitzgerald) Grattan … Irish, wife of Henry Grattan
Sarah Matilda Hoffman … Betrothed of Washington Irving
Rachel (Donelson) Jackson … American, wife of Andrew Jackson
Mary Anna (Judkins) Jackson … Wife of “Stonewall” Jackson
Martha Wales … wife of Thomas Jefferson
Margarita (Maza) Juárez … Mexican, wife of Benito Juárez
Priscilla (Hopkins) Kemble … English, wife of John Philip Kemble
Dorothy (Payne) Madison … American, wife of James Madison
Lady Frances Herbert Woolward Nisbet Nelson… English, wife of Lord Horatio Nelson
Mary (O’Connell) O’Connell … wife of Daniel O’Connell
Elizabeth Seguin Parepa de Boyesku … wife of Demetrius Parepa, Euphrosyne’s mom
Charlotte von Lingefeld … Prussian, wife of Frederick von Schiller
Charlotte Genevieve (Charpentier or Carpenter) Scott … wife of Sir Walter Scott
Frances “Fanny” (Henderson) Stephenson … wife of George Stephenson
Isabella Gethin (Shawe) Thackeray … wife of William Makepeace Thackeray
Grace (Fletcher) Webster … American, wife of Daniel Webster
Mary (Hutchinson) Wordsworth … English, wife of William Wordsworth
Single Eminent Women
(37 + 6 = 43)
Jane Austen … English novelist
Charlotte Bronte … English novelist
Maria Edgeworth … English novelist
Mary Russell Mitford … English playwright, novelist
Hannah More … English religious author and philanthropist
Catherine Maria Sedgwick … American novelist
“24 Eminent Women: Husband NOT Included”
43 +25 = 68
Marie Antoinette … Queen of France
Maria Theresa of Austria … Mother of Marie Antoinette, Empress
Elizabeth Barrett Browning … English poet, wife of Robert Browning
Francis “Fanny’ Burney [Madame d’Arblay] … English novelist, diarist, playwright
Martha (Caldwell) Calhoun … Mother of John Caldwell Calhoun
Marie Anne Charlotte Corday D’Armont … French patriot
[ Fanny Forester = pen name] Emily (Chubboch) Judson … American author
Sarah Margaret (Ossoli) Fuller … American social reformer
Elizabeth (Gurney) Fry … English religious social reformer
Felicia Dorothea Browne Hemans … English poet
Lydia (Huntley) Howard Sigourney… American author
Sarah (Ford) Johnson … Mother of Samuel Johnson
Letitia Elizabeth (Landon) McLean … English poet and novelist
Sarah Van Brugh Livingston… wife of John Jay Livingston
Frances Sargent (Locke) Osgood … American poet
Lady Emily Lamb Melbourne Cowper Palmerston… English, wife of lords
Madame Parepa-Rosa [Euphrosyne Parepa de Boyesku Carvell Rosa] … Opera singer
Mary (Philipse) Morris … English loyalist; friend of George Washington
Elizabeth Dykes Moore … wife of Thomas Moore (1779—1852)
Lady Sydney Morgan … Irish novelist
Anna Brownell (Murphy) Jameson … Irish author and archaeologist
Lady Catherine Pakenham, Duchess of Wellington … Wife of Duke Arthur Wellesley
Sarah (Kemble) Siddons … Welsh actress, sister of John Philip Kemble
Mary Fairfax Somerville … Scottish mathematician and scientist
Abigail (Eastman) Webster … Mother of Daniel Webster
EZRA TAFT BENSON
“And there in the St. George temple I saw what I had always hoped and prayed that someday I would see. Ever since I returned as a humble missionary and first learned that the Founding Fathers had appeared in that temple, I wanted to see the record.
And I saw the record.
They did appear to Wilford Woodruff twice and asked why the work hadn’t been done for them.
They had founded this country and the Constitution of this land, and they had been true to those principles …. In the archives of the temple, I saw in a book, in bold handwriting names of the Founding Fathers and others, including Columbus and other great Americans, for whom the work had been done in the house of the Lord… .All these appeared to Wilford Woodruff when he was President of the St. George Temple.
President George Washington was ordained a High Priest at that time. You will also be interested to know that according to Wilford Woodruff’s journal, John Wesley, Benjamin Franklin, and Christopher Columbus were also ordained High Priests at the time.” (Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson p. 603-4.)
WILFORD WOODRUFF
FIRST WITNESS: “I am going to bear my testimony to this assembly, if I never do it again in my life, 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, not wicked men.
General Washington and all the men that labored for the purpose were inspired of the Lord.Another thing I am going to say here, because I have a right to say it.
Every one of those men that signed the Declaration of Independence, with General Washington, called upon me, as an Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, in the Temple at St. George, two consecutive nights, and demanded at my hands that I should go forth and attend to the ordinances of the House of God for them…. I told these brethren that it was their duty to go into the Temple and labor until they had got endowments for all of them.
The did it.
Would those spirits have called upon me, as an Elder in Israel to perform that work if they had not been noble spirits before God? They would not.” (Conference Report, April 1898, p. 89-90.)
SECOND WITNESS: “I will here say that two weeks 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 … .1 straighway went into the baptismal font and called upon Brother McAllister to baptize me for the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and fifty other eminent men, making one hundred in all, including John Wesley, Columbus, and others.
I then was baptized for every president of the United States except three; and when their cause is just, somebody will do the work for them. “(JD 19:229, September 16, 1877.)
THIRD WITNESS: “On the same day these ordinances were performed, President Woodruff records in his journal that he baptized brother McAllister for 21, including Gen Washington & his forefathers and all the Presidents of the United States that were on my list except Buchanan, Van Buren & Grant… .
Sister Lucy Bigelow Young went Forth into the font and was Baptized for Martha Washington and her family and seventy (70) of the Eminent women of the world… .There were Baptized in all to day 682” (Woodruff, Journal 7:367-69–Arnold K. Garr, Epilogue, Christopher Columbus, p. 71-73.)
Wilford Woodruff wrote in his journal that he spent Sunday evening, August 19, 1877 preparing a list of some of the “noted men” of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
He used Evert A. Duyckinck’s two-volume work entitled “Eminent Men and Women of Europe and America.” He added the names of the signers of the Declaration of Independence and presidents of the United States to those he had gathered from Duyckinck’s books.
He waited until Tuesday, the day designated for baptismal work, to take his list to the temple, and asked John D. T. McAllister to baptize him for 54 of the 56 Signers and 45 other eminent men, including John Wesley, Columbus, Daniel Webster, Napoleon, and three generations of George Washington’s extended family.
Wilford then baptized John for all the deceased U.S. Presidents, except Martin Van Buren and James Buchanan because of their actions against the Saints. That night he recorded the experience and listed the names of the eminent men in his journal.
Along with the list of eminent men, Wilford also compiled, or directed the compilation of, a list of 68 eminent women. All but two of those women’s names were included in Evert Duyckinck’s books. Those two women are Euphroysne Parepa-Rosa and her mother Elizabeth.
Her father was included on the list of other eminent men.
He asked Lucy Bigelow Young, the supervisor over the female temple workers, to act as proxy and he baptized her on behalf of all the women on his list.
The eminent men he listed in his journal are well-known and, for the most part, their lives are well documented. The eminent women, on the other hand, range from infamous to unknown.
Some were admired figures, including the poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning and novelists Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte. Others, such as Charlotte de Corday and Marie Antoinette, were more controversial historical figures. Eleven of the women were members of George Washington’s extended family.
Thirty-seven were wives of the eminent men Wilford had chosen. Although 24 of the other women he included on his list were also married, whether intentionally or by oversight, he did not include their husbands on the list of eminent men.
Wilford Woodruff was very clear that the Founding Fathers appeared, not the other eminent men and not the eminent women.
He didn’t need to recognize them, or ask for their individual names and birthdates.
The Founding Fathers names were all on the Declaration of Independence and their information was widely published. The incredible impact of this experience is not diminished by the fact that he made a list of the other individuals using a book.
The appearance of the Founding Fathers inspired him to turn his attention to those outside his immediate family … and has served as an inspiration for millions of other church members to do the same.
85 Native American Chiefs were also baptized in the St. George Temple in August 1877. A new book on the subject is due to be released April 2019, entitled “Joseph’s Remnant: Lamanites in Today’s America, by Allen C. Christensen.
BYU Talk by President Benson:
https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/ezra-taft-benson/constitution-heavenly-banner/
The Constitution—A Heavenly Banner
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 the Constitution 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.
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.
Jenny Hatch Live