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The Constitution: A Glorious Standard
In January of 1844 a statement was issued to the world that Joseph Smith of Illinois was a candidate for President of the United States. He organized a political party, sent his supporters forth throughout America disseminating his views of the power and policy of the government of the United States.
Herein are excerpts from that message:
I would not have suffered my name to have been used by my friends on anywise as President of the United States or candidate for that office, if I and my friends could have had the privilege of enjoying our religious and civil rights as American citizens, even those rights which the constitution guarantees unto all her citizens alike. But this we as a people have been denied from the beginning. Persecution has rolled upon our heads from time to time from portions of the United States, like peals of thunder, because of our religion; and no portion of the government as yet has stepped forward for our relief. And under view of these things, I feel it to be my right and privilege to obtain what influence and power I can, lawfully, in the United States, for the protection of injured innocence; and if I lose my life in a good cause,* I am willing to be sacrificed on the altar of virtue, righteousness and truth, in maintaining the laws and Constitution of the United States, if need be, for the general good of mankind.
My cogitations, like Daniel’s, have for a long time troubled me, when I viewed the condition of men throughout the world, and more especially in this boasted realm, where the Declaration of Independence ‘holds 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,’ but at the same time some two or three millions of people are held as slaves for life, because the spirit of them is covered with a darker skin than ours; and hundreds of our own kindred for an infraction, or supposed infraction, of some overwise statute, have to be incarcerated in dungeon glooms,...while the duelist, the debauchee, and the defaulter for millions and other criminals, take the uppermost rooms at feasts, or, like the bird of passage, find a more congenial clime by flight.
The wisdom which ought to characterize the freest, wisest and most noble nation of the nineteenth century, should, like the sun in its meridian splendor, warm every object beneath its rays; and in main efforts of her officers, who are nothing more or less than the servants of the people...
Now, O people! people! turn unto the Lord and live, and reform this nation. Frustrate the designs of wicked men. Reduce Congress at least two-thirds. Two senators from a state and two members to a million of population will do more business than the army that now occupy the halls of the national legislature. Pay them two dollars and their board per diem (except Sundays). That is more than the farmer gets, and he lives honestly. Curtail the officers of the government in pay, number and power; for the Philistine lords have shorn our nation of its goodly locks in the lap of Delilah...
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 and from the deduction of pay from the members of Congress.
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.” Abolish the practice in the army and navy of trying men by court-martial for desertion. If a soldier or marine runs away, send him his wages, with this instruction, that his country will never trust him again; he has forfeited his honor.
Make honor the standard with all men. Be sure that good is rendered for evil in all cases, and the whole nation, like a kingdom of kings and priests, will rise up in righteousness, and be respected as wise and worthy on earth, and as just and holy for heaven, by Jehovah, the author of perfection.
More economy in the national and state governments would make less taxes among the people; more equality through the cities, towns and country, would make less distinction among the people... The very name of “American” is fraught with friendship. Oh, then, create confidence! Restore freedom! Break down slavery! Banish imprisonment for debt... Remember that honesty is not subject to law: the law was made for transgressors...
We have had Democratic presidents, Whig presidents, a pseudo-Democratic-Whig president, and now it is time to have a President of the United States...
Joseph Smith was well acquainted with tyranny. In 1838-39 he spent several months incarcerated in the dungeon of a jail ironically named “Liberty” jail at “Independence” Missouri. While jailed there he penned the following statement:
Hence we say, that the Constitution of the United States is a glorious standard; it is founded in the wisdom of God. It is a heavenly banner; it is to all those who are privileged with the sweets of liberty, like the cooling shades and refreshing waters of a great rock in a thirsty and weary land. It is like a great tree under whose branches men from every clime can be shielded from the burning rays of the sun.
We, brethren, are deprived of the protection of its glorious principles, by the cruelty of the cruel, by those who only look for the time being, for pasturage like the beasts of the field, only to fill themselves; and forget that the “Mormons,” as well as the Presbyterians, and those of every other class and description, have equal rights to partake of the fruits of the great tree of our national liberty. But notwithstanding we see what we see, and feel what we feel, and know what we know, yet that fruit is no less precious and delicious to our taste; we cannot be weaned from the milk, neither can we be driven from the breast; neither will we deny our religion because of the hand of oppression; but we will hold on until death.
We say that God is true; that the Constitution of the United States is true; that the Bible is true; that the Book of Mormon is true; that the Book of Covenants is true; that Christ is true; that the ministering angels sent forth from God are true...
In June of 1844 Joseph Smith spoke to a vast assemblage and stated, “We are American citizens. We live upon a soil, for the liberties of which our fathers periled their lives and spilt their blood upon the battle-field. Those rights, so dearly purchased, shall not be disgracefully trodden under foot by lawless marauders without at least a noble effort on our part to sustain our liberties.” It was his last public address.
* On June 27, in the year of our Lord 1844, Joseph Smith became the first candidate for the President of the United States of America to be assassinated.
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We Sovereigns hold, by the blood of our Forefathers, by the words and deeds of minorities and majorities of generations of Americans, that the Constitution of the United States of America is a sacred document. We hereby reprint that Holy Writ for humble and diligent consideration, and call upon Freemen everywhere to help us, in our quest as Sovereigns, to restore the Constitution and Bill of Rights to force and effect... so help us God.
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