United States: Teachings of Joseph Smith

United States

1 I arrived safely at Nauvoo, after a wearisome journey, through alternate snow and mud, having witnessed many vexatious movements in government officers, whose sole object should be the peace and prosperity and happiness of the whole people; but instead of this, I discovered that popular clamor and personal aggrandizement were the ruling principles of those in authority; and my heart faints within me when I see, by the visions of the Almighty, the end of this nation, if she continues to disregard the cries and petitions of her virtuous citizens, as she has done, and is now doing. (Joseph Smith, History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 7 Vols. 4:89)

2 Our nation, which possesses greater resources than any other, is rent, from center to circumference, with party strife, political intrigues, and sectional interest; our counselors are panic stricken, our legislators are astonished, and our senators are confounded, our merchants are paralyzed, our tradesmen are disheartened, our mechanics out of employ, our farmers distressed, and our poor crying for bread, our banks are broken, our credit ruined, and our states overwhelmed in debt, yet we are, and have been in peace.

. . . With all our evils we are better situated than any other nation. (Joseph Smith, History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 7 Vols. 5:62)

3 In the United States the people are the government, and their united voice is the only sovereign that should rule, the only power that should be obeyed, and the only gentlemen that should be honored at home and abroad, on the land and on the sea. Wherefore, 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 of freedom; I would walk in the tracks of the illustrious patriots who carried the ark of the Government upon their shoulders with an eye single to the glory of the people. (Joseph Smith, History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 7 Vols. 6:208)

Footnotes

2128. Nauvoo, 4 March 1840.

2129. Editorial in the Times and Seasons, 15 July 1842.

2130. A pamphlet containing the Prophet's political platform, entitled Views of the Powers and Policy of the Government of the United States, Nauvoo, 7 February 1844.