Powers And Policy Of The Government

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Powers Policy Government - Mormon Doctrine Studies - Posted: 24th Dec, 2007 - 2:39am

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KoZ2 - Kingdom of Zion Topic - Joseph Smith

Post Date: 24th Dec, 2007 - 2:35am / Post ID: #

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Powers And Policy Of The Government

Powers and Policy of the Government

Joseph Smith's Views Correspondence

I have not read through this. I did note that it mentions Joseph's name in both the first and third person.

QUOTE

Powers and Policy
of the
Government

by
Joseph Smith

Joseph Smith's Views
Correspondence

In 1844 Joseph Smith decided to run for the office of President of the
United States. On February 8, he wrote the following: "In the evening there
was a political meeting in the assembly room, when Brother Phelps publicly
read for the first time my `Views of the Powers and Policy of the General
Government.' I addressed the meeting as follows:--

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 as a people we 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 in 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. (HISTORY OF THE CHURCH, Joseph
Smith, Vol. VI, pp. 210-211)

The following article on the "Powers and Policy of the Government" was
written by Joseph Smith on February 7, 1844. His principles of good government
were as clear as those of pure religion. If these principles would have been
applied, the perils of Civil War and other national problems could have been
avoided.

This article resulted from correspondence between Joseph Smith with J.
C. Calhoun and Henry Clay, candidates for the Presidency of the United States.
Joseph Smith wrote to them asking, "What would be your rule of action toward
the Latter-day Saints, should you be elected President?" Because their answers
were so non-committal toward the cruelty and injustice endured by the
Latter-day Saints, it resulted in Joseph Smith's becoming a candidate for the
U.S. presidency.

[5] Joseph Smith's Views
of the
Powers and Policy of the Government.

Born in a land of liberty, and breathing an air uncorrupted with the
sirocco of barbarous climes, I ever feel a double anxiety for the happiness of
all men, both in time and in eternity.
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 pursuit of happiness;" but at the same time some two or three millions of
people are held as slaves for life, because the spirit in them is covered with
a darker skin than ours; and hundreds of our kindred for an infraction, or
supposed infraction, of some over-wise statute, have to be incarcerated in
dungeons of gloom, or penitentiaries, while the dualist, 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, [6] wisest, and most
noble nation of the nineteenth century, should, like the sun in his meridian
splendor, warm every object beneath its rays; and the main efforts of her
officers, who are nothing more nor less than the servants of the people, ought
to be directed to ameliorate the condition of all, black or white, bond or
free; for the best of books says, "God hath made of one blood all nations of
men for to dwell on the face of the earth."
Our common country presents to all men the same advantages, the same
facilities, the same prospects, the same honors, and the same rewards; and
without hypocrisy, the Constitution, when it says, "WE THE PEOPLE of the
United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice,
ensure the domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the
general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our
posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of
America," meant just what it said without reference to color or condition, ad
infinitum.
The aspirations and expectations of a virtuous people, environed with
so wise, so liberal, so deep, so broad, and so high a charter of equal rights
as appears in said Constitution, ought to be treated by those to whom the
administration of the laws is entrusted with as much sanctity as the prayers
of the Saints are treated in heaven, that love, confidence, and union, like
the sun, moon, and stars, should bear witness,
(For ever singing as they shine,)
"The hand that made us is divine!"
Unity is power; and when I reflect on the importance of it to the
stability of all governments, I am astounded at the silly moves of persons and
parties to foment discord in order to ride into power on the current of
popular excitement; nor am I less surprised at the stretches of power or [7]
restrictions of right which too often appear as acts of legislators to pave
the way to some favorite political scheme as destitute of intrinsic merit as a
wolf's heart is of the milk of human kindness. A Frenchman would say, "Prosque
tout aimer richesses et pouvoir." (Almost all men like wealth and power.)
I must dwell on this subject longer than others; for nearly one hundred
years ago that golden patriot, Benjamin Franklin, drew up a plan of union for
the then colonies of Great Britain, that now are such an independent nation,
which, among many wise provisions for obedient children under their father's
more rugged hand, said this:--"They have power to make laws, and lay and levy
such general duties, imposts, or taxes as to them shall appear most equal and
just, (considering the ability and other circumstances of the inhabitants in
the several colonies,) and such as may be collected with the least
inconvenience to the people, rather discouraging luxury than loading industry
with unnecessary burdens." Great Britain surely lacked the laudable humanity
and fostering clemency to grant such a just plan of union: but the sentiment
remains, like the land that honored its birth, as a pattern for wise men to
study the convenience of the people more than the comfort of the cabinet.
And one of the most noble fathers of our freedom and country's glory,
great in peace, great in the estimation of the world, and great in the hearts
of his countrymen, (the illustrious Washington,) said in his first inaugural
address to Congress--"I behold the surest pledges that as, on one side, no
local prejudices or attachments, no separate views or party animosities will
misdirect the comprehensive and equal eye which ought to watch over this great
assemblage of communities and interests so, on another, that the foundation of
our national policy [8] will be laid in pure and immutable principles of
private morality, and the pre-eminence of free government be exemplified by
all the attributes which can win the affections of its citizens and command
the respect of the world."
Verily, here shine the virtue and wisdom of a statesman in such lucid
rays, that had every succeeding Congress followed the rich instruction in all
their deliberations and enactments, for the benefit and convenience of the
whole community and the communities of which it is composed, no sound of a
rebellion in South Carolina, nor rupture in Rhode Island, no mob in Missouri
expelling her citizens by Executive authority, corruption in the ballot-boxes,
a border warfare between Ohio and Michigan, hard times and distress, outbreak
upon outbreak in the principal cities, murder, robbery, and defalcation,
scarcity of money, and a thousand other difficulties, would have torn asunder
the bonds of the Union, destroyed the confidence of man with man, and left the
great body of the people to mourn over misfortunes in poverty brought on by
corrupt legislation in an hour of proud vanity for self-aggrandizement.
The great Washington, soon after the foregoing faithful admonition to
the common welfare of this nation, further advised Congress that "among the
many interesting objects which will engage your attention, that of providing
for the common defense will merit particular regard. To be prepared for war is
one of the most effectual means of preserving peace." As the Italian would
say-- "Buono aviso." (Good advice.)
The elder Adams, in his inaugural address, gives national pride such a
grand turn of justification, that every honest citizen must look back upon the
infancy of the United States with an approving smile, and rejoice that
patriotism in their rulers, virtue in the people, and prosperity in the Union
once crowded the expectations of hope, [9] unveiled the sophistry of the
hypocrite, and silenced the folly of foes. Mr. Adams said, "If national pride
is ever justifiable or excusable, it is when it springs not from power or
riches, grandeur or glory, but from conviction of national innocence,
information, and benevolence."
There is no doubt such was actually the case with our young realm at
the close of the last century. Peace, prosperity, and union filled the country
with religious toleration, temporal enjoyment, and virtuous enterprise; and
grandly, too, when the deadly winter of the "Stamp Act," the "Tea Act," and
other close communion acts of Royalty had choked the growth of freedom of
speech, liberty of the press, and liberty of conscience--did light, liberty,
and loyalty flourish like the cedars of God.
The respected and venerable Thomas Jefferson, in his inaugural address,
made more than forty years ago, shows what a beautiful prospect an innocent,
virtuous nation presents to the sage's eye, where there is space for
enterprise, hands for industry, heads for heroes, and hearts for moral
greatness. He said, "A rising nation spread over a wide and fruitful land,
traversing all the seas with the rich productions of their industry, engaged
in commerce with nations who feel power and forget right, advancing rapidly to
destinies beyond the reach of mortal eye,--when I contemplate these
transcendent objects, and see the honor, the happiness, and the hopes of this
beloved country committed to the issue and the auspices of this day, I shrink
from the contemplation, and humble myself before the magnitude of the
undertaking."
Such a prospect was truly soul-stirring to a good man. But "since the
fathers have fallen asleep," wicked and designing men have unrobed the
Government of its glory; and the people, if not in dust and ashes, or in
sackcloth, have to lament in poverty her departed greatness, while [10]
demagogues build fires in the north and south, east and west, to keep up their
spirits till it is better times. But year after year has left the people to
hope, till the very name of Congress or State Legislature is as horrible to
the sensitive friend of his country as the house of "Bluebeard" is to
children, or "Crockford's" Hell of London to meek men.
When the people are secure and their rights properly respected, then
the four main pillars of prosperity--vis., agriculture, manufactures,
navigation, and commerce, need the fostering care of Government, and in so
goodly a country as ours, where the soil, the climate, the rivers, the lakes,
and the sea coast, the productions, the timber, the minerals, and the
inhabitants are so diversified, that a pleasing variety accommodates all
tastes, trades, and calculations, it certainly is the highest point of
supervision to protect the whole northern and southern, eastern and western,
center and circumference of the realm, by a judicious tariff. It is an old
saying and a true one, "If you wish to be respected, respect yourselves."
I will adopt in part the language of Mr. Madison's inaugural
address,--"To cherish peace and friendly intercourse with all nations, having
correspondent dispositions; to maintain sincere neutrality towards belligerent
nations; to prefer in all cases amicable discussion and reasonable
accommodation of differences to a decision of them by an appeal to arms; to
exclude foreign intrigues and foreign partialities, so degrading to all
countries, and so baneful to free ones; to foster a spirit of independence too
just to invade the rights of others, too proud to surrender our own, too
liberal to indulge unworthy prejudices ourselves, and too elevated not to look
down upon them in others; to hold the union of the States as the basis of
their peace and happiness; to support the Constitution, which is the cement
[11] of the union, as well in its limitations as in its authorities; to
respect the rights and authorities reserved to the States and to the people as
equally incorporated with and essential to the success of the general system;
to avoid the slightest interference with the rights of conscience or the
functions of religion, so wisely exempted from civil jurisdiction; to preserve
in their full energy the other salutary provisions in behalf of private and
personal rights, and of the freedom of the press,--so far as intention aids in
the fulfillment of duty, are consummations too big with benefits not to
captivate the energies of all honest men to achieve them, when they can be
brought to pass by reciprocation, friendly alliances, wise legislation, and
honorable treaties."
The Government has once flourished under the guidance of trusty
servants; and the Hon. Mr. Monroe, in his day, while speaking of the
Constitution, says, "Our commerce has been wisely regulated with foreign
nations and between the States. New States have been admitted into our Union.
Our Territory has been enlarged by fair and honorable treaty, and with great
advantage to the original States; the States respectively protected by the
national Government, under a mild paternal system against foreign dangers, and
enjoying within their separate spheres, by a wise partition of power, a just
proportion of the sovereignty, have improved their police, extended their
settlements, and attained a strength and maturity which are the best proofs of
wholesome laws well administered. And if we look to the conditions of
individuals, what a proud spectacle does it exhibit! On whom has oppression
fallen in any quarter of our Union? Who has been deprived of any right of
person or property?--Who restrained from offering his vows in the mode which
he prefers to the Divine Author of his being? It is well known that all these
blessings have been enjoyed in their fullest extent; and I add, with
pecu-[12]liar satisfaction, that there has been no example of a capital
punishment being inflicted on any one for the crime of high treason." What a
delightful picture of power, policy, and prosperity! Truly the wise man's
proverb is just-- "Sedaukauh teromain goy, veh-kasade le-u-meem khah-maut."
(Righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.)
But this is not all. The same honorable statesman, after having had
about forty years' experience in the Government, under the full tide of
successful experiment, gives the following commendatory assurance of the
efficiency of the Magna Charta to answer its great end and aim--to protect the
people in their rights. "Such, then, is the happy Government under which we
live; a Government adequate to every purpose for which the social compact is
formed; a Government elective in all its branches, under which every citizen
may by his merit obtain the highest trust recognized by the Constitution,
which contains within it no cause of discord, none to put at variance one
portion of the community with another; a Government which protects every
citizen in the full enjoyment of his rights, and is able to protect the nation
against injustice from foreign powers."
Again, the younger Adams, in the silver age of our country's
advancement to fame, in his inaugural address (1825), thus candidly declares
the majesty of the youthful republic in its increasing greatness;--"The year
of jubilee, since the first formation of our union, has just elapsed; that of
the Declaration of Independence is at hand. The consummation of both was
effected by this Constitution. Since that period, a population of four
millions has multiplied to twelve. A territory, bounded by the Mississippi,
has been extended from sea to sea. New States have been admitted to the Union,
in numbers nearly equal to those of [13] the first confederation. Treaties of
peace, amity, and commerce have been concluded with the principal dominions of
the earth. The people of other nations, the inhabitants of regions acquired,
not by conquest, but by compact, have been united with us in the participation
of our rights and duties, of our burdens and blessings. The forest has fallen
by the ax of our woodsman. The soil has been made to teem by the tillage of
our farmers. Our commerce has whitened every ocean. The dominion of man over
physical nature has been extended by the invention of our artists. Liberty and
law have marched hand in hand. All the purposes of human association have been
accomplished as effectively as under any other Government on the globe, and at
a cost little exceeding, in a whole generation, the expenditures of other
nations in a single year."

Government The Policy Powers

Continued...

QUOTE

In continuation of such noble sentiments, General Jackson, upon his
ascension to the great chair of the chief magistracy, said, "As long as our
Government is administered for the good of the people, and is regulated by
their will, as long as it secures to us the rights of person and property,
liberty of conscience, and of the press, it will be worth defending; and so
long as it is worth defending, a patriotic militia will cover it with an
impenetrable aegis."
General Jackson's administration may be denominated the acme of
American glory, liberty, and prosperity; for the national debt, which in 1815,
on account of the late war, was $125,000,000, and being lessened gradually,
was paid up in his golden day, and preparations were made to distribute the
surplus revenue among the several States; and that august patriot, to use his
own words in his farewell address, retired, leaving "a great people prosperous
and happy, in the full enjoyment of liberty and peace, honored and respected
by every nation in the world."
At the age, then, of sixty years, our blooming Repub-[14]lic began to
decline under the withering touch of Martin Van Buren! Disappointed ambition,
thirst for power, pride, corruption, party spirit, faction, patronage,
perquisites, fame, tangling alliances, priestcraft, and spiritual wickedness
in high places, struck hands and revelled in midnight splendor.
Trouble, vexation, perplexity, and contention, mingled with hope, fear,
and murmuring, rumbled through the Union and agitated the whole nation, as
would an earthquake at the center of the earth, the world heaving the sea
beyond the bounds and shaking the everlasting hills; so, in hopes of better
times, while jealousy, hypocritical pretensions, and pompous ambition were
luxuriating on the ill-gotten spoils of the people, they rose in their majesty
like a tornado, and swept through the land, till General Harrison appeared as
a star among the storm-clouds for better weather.
The calm came and the language of that venerable patriot, in his
inaugural address, while descanting upon the merits of the Constitution and
its framers, thus expressed himself;--"There were in it features which
appeared not to be in harmony with their ideas of a simple representative
Democracy or Republic. And knowing the tendency of power to increase itself,
particularly when executed by a single individual, predictions were made that,
at no very remote period, the Government would terminate in virtual monarchy."
It would not become me to say that the fears of these patriots have
been already realized. But as I sincerely believe that the tendency of
measures and of men's opinions for some years past has been in that direction,
it is, I conceive, strictly proper that I should take this occasion to repeat
the assurances I have heretofore given of my determination to arrest the
progress of that tendency, if it [15] really exists, and restore the
Government to its pristine health and vigor.
This good man died before he had the opportunity of applying one balm
to ease the pain of our groaning country, and I am willing the nation should
be the judge, whether General Harrison, in his exalted station, upon the eve
of his entrance into the world of spirits, told the truth, or not, with acting
President Tyler's three years of perplexity, and pseudo-Whig-Democrat reign to
heal the breaches or show the wounds, secundum artem (according to art).
Subsequent events, all things considered, Van Buren's downfall,
Harrison's exit, and Tyler's self-sufficient turn to the whole, go to show, as
a Chaldean might exclaim--"Beram etai elauh beshmayauh gauhah rauzeen."
(Certainly there is a God in heaven to reveal secrets.)
No honest man can doubt for a moment but the glory of American Liberty
is on the wane, and that calamity and confusion will sooner or later destroy
the peace of the people. Speculators will urge a national bank as a savior of
credit and comfort. A hireling pseudo-priesthood will plausibly push abolition
doctrines and doings and "human rights" into Congress, and into every other
place where conquest smells of fame, or opposition swells to popularity.
Democracy, Whiggery, and cliquery will attract their elements and foment
divisions among the people, to accomplish fancied schemes and accumulate
power, while poverty, driven to despair, like hunger forcing its way through a
wall, will break through the statutes of men to save life, and mend the breach
of prison glooms.
A still higher grade of what the "nobility of nations" call "great men"
will dally with all rights, in order to smuggle a fortune at "one fell swoop,"
mortgage Texas, possess Oregon, and claim all the unsettled regions of the
[16] world for hunting and trapping; and should an humble, honest man, red,
black, or white, exhibit a better title, these gentry have only to clothe the
judge with richer ermine, and spangle the lawyer's finger with finer rings, to
have the judgment of his peers and the honor of his lords as a pattern of
honesty, virtue, and humanity, while the motto hangs on his nation's
escutcheon--"Every man has his price!"
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 Government in pay, number, and power; for the
Philistine lords have shorn our nation of its goodly locks in the lap of
Delilah.
Petition your State Legislatures to pardon every convict in their
several penitentiaries, blessing them as they go, and saying to them, in the
name of the Lord, Go thy way and sin no more.
Advise your legislators, when they make laws for larceny, burglary, or
any felony, to make the penalty applicable to work upon roads, public works,
or any place where the culprit can be taught more wisdom and more virtue, and
become more enlightened. Rigor and seclusion will never do as much to reform
the propensities of men as reason and friendship. Murder only can claim
confinement or death. Let the penitentiaries be turned into seminaries of
learning, where intelligence, like the angels of heaven, would banish such
fragments of barbarism. Imprisonment for debt is a meaner practice than the
sav-[17]age tolerates, with all his ferocity. "Amor vincit emnia." (Love
conquers all.)
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; and more honesty and familiarity
in societies would make less hypocrisy and flattery in all branches of the
community; and open, frank, candid decorum to all men, in this boasted land of
liberty, would beget esteem, confidence, union, and love; and the neighbor
from any state or from any country, of whatever color, clime or tongue, could
rejoice when he put his foot on the sacred [18] soil of freedom, and exclaim,
The very name of "American" is fraught with friendship. Oh, then, 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 was made for transgressors. Wherefore, a
Dutchman might exclaim--"Ein ehrlicher name ist besser als Reichthum." (A good
name is better than riches.)
For the accommodation of the people of 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 Central Bank, and by the states and territories for the branches; and
whose officers and directors shall be elected yearly by the people, with wages
at the rate of two dollars per day for services; which several banks shall
never issue any more bills than the amount of capital stock in her vaults and
the interest.
The net gain of the Central bank shall be applied to the national
revenue, and that of the branches to the state and territories' revenues. And
the bills shall be par throughout the nation, which will mercifully cure that
fatal disorder known in cities as brokerage, and leave the people's money in
their own pockets.
Give every man his constitutional freedom and the president full power
to send an army to suppress mobs, and the States authority to repeal and
impugn that relic of folly which makes it necessary for the governor of a
state to make the demand of the President for troops, in case of invasion or
rebellion.
The governor himself may be a mobber; and instead of being punished, as
he should be, for murder or treason, he may destroy the very lives, rights,
and property he should protect. Like the good Samaritan, send every
law-[19]yer as soon as he repents and obeys the ordinances of heaven, to
preach the Gospel to the destitute, without purse or scrip, pouring in the oil
and the wine. A learned Priesthood is certainly more honorable than "an
hireling clergy."
As to the contiguous territories to the United States, wisdom would
direct no tangling alliance. Oregon belongs to this government honorably; and
when we have the red man's consent, let the Union spread from the east to the
west sea; and if Texas petitions Congress to be adopted among the sons of
liberty, give her the right hand of fellowship, and refuse not the same
friendly grip to Canada and Mexico. And when the right arm of freemen is
stretched out in the character of a navy for the protection of rights,
commerce, and honor, let the iron eyes of power watch from Maine to Mexico,
and from California to Columbia. Thus may union be strengthened, and foreign
speculation prevented from opposing broadside to broadside.
Seventy years have done much for this goodly land. They have burst the
chains of oppression and monarchy, and multiplied its inhabitants from two to
twenty millions, with a proportionate share of knowledge keen enough to
circumnavigate the globe, draw the lightning from the clouds, and cope with
all the crowned heads of the world.
Then why--Oh, why will a once flourishing people not arise,
phoenix-like over the cinders of Martin Van Buren's power, and over the
sinking fragments and smoking ruins of other catamount politicians, and over
the windfalls of Benton, Calhoun, Clay, Wright, and a caravan of other equally
unfortunate law doctors, and cheerfully help to spread a plaster and bind up
the burnt, bleeding wounds, of a sore but blessed country?
[20] The southern people are hospitable and noble. They will help to rid so
free a country of every vestige of slavery, whenever they are assured of an
equivalent for their property. The country will be full of money and
confidence when a National Bank of twenty millions, and a State Bank in every
state, with a million or more, gives a tone to monetary matters, and makes a
circulating medium as valuable in the purses of the whole community as in the
coffers of a speculating banker or broker.
The people may have faults, but they should never be trifled with. I
think Mr. Pitt's quotation in the British Parliament of Mr. Prior's couplet
for the husband and wife, to apply to the course which the King and ministry
of England should pursue to the then colonies of the now United States, might
be a genuine rule of action for some of the breath-made men in high places to
use towards the posterity of this noble, daring people;--
"Be to her faults a little blind;
Be to her virtues very kind."
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;
and let the people of the whole Union, like the inflexible Romans, whenever
they find a promise made by a candidate that is not practised 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.
Mr. Van Buren said, in his inaugural address, that he went "into the
Presidential chair the inflexible and uncompromising opponent of every
attempt, on the part of Congress, to abolish slavery in the District of
Columbia, against the wishes of the slave-holding States, and also with a
determination equally decided to resist the slightest interference with it in
the States where it exists."
[21] Poor little Matty made this rhapsodical sweep with the fact before his
eyes, that the State of New York, his native State, had abolished slavery
without a struggle or a groan. Great God, how independent! From hence-forth
slavery is tolerated where it exists, constitution or no constitution, people
or no people, right or wrong: Vox Matti--vox Diaboli ("the voice of Matty--the
voice of the Devil)." And peradventure, his great "sub-treasury" scheme was a
piece of the same mind. But the man and his measures have such a striking
resemblance to the anecdote of the Welshman and his cart-tongue, that when the
Constitution was so long that it allowed slavery at the capitol of a free
people, it could not be cut off; but when it was so short that it needed a
sub-treasury to save the funds of the nation, it could be spliced! Oh, granny,
granny, what a long tail our puss has got! As a Greek might say, Hysteron
proteron, (the cart before the horse). But his mighty whisk through the great
national fire, for the presidential chestnuts, burnt the locks of his glory
with the blaze of his folly!

Post Date: 24th Dec, 2007 - 2:37am / Post ID: #

Quote

Powers And Policy Of The Government Studies Doctrine Mormon

QUOTE

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 the sea. Wherefore, were I 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, 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 gentlemen a
reasonable equivalent for his property, that the whole nation might be free
indeed!
[22] When the people petitioned 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 the ways and means.
And when the people petitioned to possess the territory of Oregon or any other
contiguous territory, I would lend the influence of a Chief Magistrate to
grant so reasonable a request, that they might extend the mighty efforts and
enterprise of a free people from the east to the west sea, and make the
wilderness blossom as the rose. And when a neighboring realm petitioned to
join the union of liberty's sons, my voice would be, Come--yea, come, Texas;
come Mexico, come Canada; and come all the world; let us be brethren, let us
be one great family, and let there be a universal peace.
Abolish the cruel custom of prisons (except in certain cases),
penitentiaries, court-martials for desertion; and let reason and friendship
reign over the ruins of ignorance and barbarity; yea, I would, as the
universal friend of man, open the prisons, open the eyes, open the ears, and
open the hearts of all people, to behold and enjoy freedom--unadulterated
freedom; and God who once cleansed the violence of the earth with flood, whose
Son laid down His life for the salvation of all His Father gave him out of the
world, and who has promised that He will come and purify the world again with
fire in the last days, should be supplicated by me for the good of all people.
With the highest esteem, I am a friend of virtue and the people,
JOSEPH SMITH.
NAUVOO, ILLINOIS, Feb. 7, 1844.
(HISTORY OF THE CHURCH, Vol. VI, pp. 197-209)

[23] Correspondence
between
THE PROPHET JOSEPH SMITH
and the
HONS. J. C. CALHOUN and HENRY CLAY
and other presidential candidates.

NAUVOO, ILL., NOV. 4th, 1843.

HON. JOHN C. CALHOUN.
Dear Sir:--As we understand you are a candidate for the Presidency at
the next election; and as the Latter-day Saints (sometimes called "Mormons,"
who now constitute a numerous class in the school politic of this vast
republic,) have been robbed of an immense amount of property, and endured
nameless sufferings by the State of Missouri, and from her borders have been
driven by force of arms, contrary to our national covenants; and as in vain we
have sought redress by all constitutional, legal and honorable means, in her
courts, her executive councils, and her legislative halls; and as we have
petitioned Congress to take cognizance of our sufferings without effect, we
have judged it wisdom to address you this communication, and solicit an
immediate, specific, and candid reply to "What will by your rule of action
relative to us as a people," should fortune favor your ascension to the chief
magistracy?
Most respectfully, sir, your friend, and the friend of peace, good
order, and constitutional rights,
JOSEPH SMITH.
In behalf of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

[24] Similar letters were written to General LEWIS CASS, Hon. RICHARD M.
JOHNSON, Hon. HENRY CLAY, and President MARTIN VAN BUREN. The following
paragraph was added to the letter addressed to Mr. VAN BUREN:

"Also whether your views or feelings have changed since the subject
matter of this communication was presented you in your then official capacity
at Washington, in the year 1841, and by you treated with a coldness,
indifference, and neglect, bordering on contempt."

J. C. CALHOUN'S REPLY.

Fort Hill, 2nd December, 1843.

Sir:--You ask me what would be my rule of action relative to the
Mormons or Latter-day Saints, should I be elected President; to which I
answer, that if I should be elected, I would strive to administer the
government according to the Constitution and the laws of the Union, and that
as they make no distinction between citizens of different religious creeds, I
should make none. As far as it depends on the Executive department, all should
have the full benefit of both, and none should be exempt from their operation.
But as you refer to the case of Missouri, candor compels me to repeat
what I said to you at Washington, that, according to my views, the case does
not come within the jurisdiction of the Federal Government, which is one of
limited and specific powers.
With respect, I am, &c., &c.,
J. C. CALHOUN.
Mr. Joseph Smith.

[25] JOSEPH SMITH'S REJOINDER TO J. C. CALHOUN.
Nauvoo, Illinois,
January 2, 1844.
Sir:--Your reply to my letter of last November, concerning your rule of
action towards the Latter-day Saints, if elected President, is at hand; and
that you and your friends of the same opinion relative to the matter in
question may not be disappointed as to me or my mind upon so grave a subject,
permit me, as a law-abiding man, as a well-wisher to the perpetuity of
constitutional rights and liberty, and as a friend to the free worship of
Almighty God by all, according to the dictates of every person's own
conscience, to say I am surprised that a man or men in the highest stations of
public life should have made up such a fragile "view" of a case, than which
there is not one on the face of the globe fraught with so much consequence to
the happiness of men in this world or the world to come.
To be sure, the first paragraph of your letter appears very complacent
and fair on a white sheet of paper. And who, that is ambitious for greatness
and power, would not have said the same thing? Your oath would bind you to
support the Constitution and laws; and as all creeds and religions are alike
tolerated, they must, of course, all be justified or condemned according to
merit or demerit. But why--tell me why are all the principal men held up for
public stations so cautiously careful not to publish to the world that they
will judge a righteous judgment, law or no law? for laws and opinions, like
the vanes of steeples, change with the wind.
One Congress passes a law, another repeals it; and [26] one statesman
says that the Constitution means this, and another that; and who does not know
that all may be wrong? The opinion and pledge, therefore, in the first
paragraph of your reply to my question, like the forced steam from the engine
of a steam-boat, makes the show of a bright cloud at first; but when it comes
in contact with a purer atmosphere, dissolves to common air again.
Your second paragraph leaves you naked before yourself, like a likeness
in a mirror, when you say that, "according to your view, the Federal
Government is one of limited and specific powers," and has no jurisdiction in
the case of the "Mormons." So then a State can at any time expel any portion
of her citizens with impunity, and, in the language of Mr. Van Buren, frosted
over with your gracious "views of the case," though the cause is ever so just
Government can do nothing for them, because it has no power.
Go on, then Missouri, after another set of inhabitants (as the
Latter-day Saints did,) have entered some two or three hundred thousand
dollars' worth of land, and made extensive improvements thereon. Go on, then,
I say; banish the occupants or owners, or kill them, as the mobbers did many
of the Latter-day Saints, and take their land and property as spoil; and let
the Legislature, sa in the case of the "Mormons," appropriate a couple of
hundred thousand dollars to pay the mob for doing that job; for the renowned
Senator from South Carolina, Mr. J. C. Calhoun, says the powers of the Federal
Government are so specific and limited that it has no jurisdiction of the
case! O ye people who groan under the oppression of tyrants!--ye exiled Poles,
who have felt the iron hand of Russian grasp!--ye poor and unfortunate among
all nations! come to the asylum of the oppressed; buy ye lands of the General
Government; pay in your money to the treasury to strengthen the army and navy;
worship God according [27] to the dictates of your own consciences; pay in
your taxes to support the great heads of a glorious nation: but remember, a
"sovereign State" is so much more powerful than the United States, the parent
Government, that it can exile you at pleasure, mob you with impunity,
confiscate your lands and property, have the Legislature sanction it,--yea,
even murder you as an edict of an emperor, and it does no wrong; for the noble
Senator of South Carolina says the power of the Federal Government is so
limited and specific that it has no jurisdiction of the case! What think ye of
imperium in imperio?
Ye spirits of the blessed of all ages, hark! Ye shades of departed
statesmen, listen! Abraham, Moses, Homer, Socrates, Solon, Solomon, and all
that ever thought of right and wrong, look down from your exaltations, if you
have any, for it is said in the midst of counsellors there is safety; and when
you have learned that fifteen thousand innocent citizens, after having
purchased their lands of the United States, and paid for them, were expelled
from a "sovereign State" by order of the Governor at the point of a bayonet,
their arms taken from them by the same authority, and their rights of
migration into said State denied under pain of imprisonment, whipping,
robbing, mobbing, and even death, and no justice or recompense allowed; and
from the legislature, with the Governor at the head, down to the justice of
the peace, with a bottle of whisky in one hand and a bowie knife in the other,
hear them all declare that there is no justice for a "Mormon" in that State,
and judge ye a righteous judgment, and tell me when the virtue of the States
was stolen, where the honor of the General Government lies hid, and what
clothes a senator with wisdom? Oh, nullifying Carolina! Oh, little tempestuous
Rhode Island! would it not be well for the great men of the nation to read the
fable of the [28] Partial Judge, and when part of the free citizens of a State
had been expelled contrary to the Constitution, mobbed, robbed, plundered, and
many murdered, instead of searching into the course taken with Joanna
Southcott, Ann Lee, the French prophets, the Quakers of New England, and
rebellious niggers in the slave States, to hear both sides and then judge,
rather than have the mortification to say, "Oh, it is my bull that had killed
your ox! That alters the case! I must inquire into it; and if, and if---
If the General Government has no power to reinstate expelled citizens
to their rights, there is a monstrous hypocrite fed and fostered from the hard
earnings of the people! A real "bull beggar" upheld by sycophants. And
although you may wink to the priests to stigmatize wheedle the drunkards to
swear, and raise the hue-and-cry of--"Impostor! false prophet! G-d d-n old Joe
Smith!" yet remember, if the Latter-day Saints are not restored to all their
rights and paid for all their losses, according to the known rules of justice
and judgment, reciprocation and common honesty among men, that God will come
out of his hiding-place, and vex this nation with a sore vexation: yea, the
consuming wrath of an offended God shall smoke through the nation with as much
distress and woe as independence has blazed through with pleasure and delight.
Where is the strength of Government? Where is the patriotism of a Washington,
a Warren, and Adams? And where is a spark from the watch-fire of '76, by which
one candle might be lit that would glimmer upon the confines of Democracy?
Well may it be said that one man is not a state, nor one state the nation.
In the days of General Jackson, when France refused the first
installment for spoliations, there was power, force, and honor enough to
resent injustice and insult, and the money came; and shall Missouri, filled
with negro-drivers [29] and white men stealers, go "unwhipped of justice" for
ten-fold greater sins than France? No! verily, no! While I have powers of body
and mind--while water runs and grass grows--while virtue is lovely and vice
hateful, and while a stone points out a sacred spot where a fragment of
American liberty once was, I or my posterity will plead the cause of injured
innocence, until Missouri makes atonement for all her sins, and sinks
disgraced, degraded, and damned to hell, "where the worm dieth not, and the
fire is not quenched."
Why, sir, the power not delegated to the United States and the States
belong to the people, and Congress sent to do the people's business have all
power; and shall fifteen thousand citizens groan in exile? O vain men! will ye
not, if ye do not restore them to their rights and $2,000,000 worth of
property, relinquish to them, (the Latter-day Saints,) as a body, their
portion of power that belongs to them according to the Constitution? Power has
its convenience as well as inconvenience. "The world was not made for Caesar
alone, but for Titus too."
I will give you a parable. A certain lord had a vineyard in a goodly
land, which men labored in at their pleasure. A few meek men also went and
purchased with money from some of these chief men that labored at pleasure a
portion of land in the vineyard, at a very remote part of it, and began to
improve it and to eat and drink the fruit thereof,--when some vile persons,
who regarded not man, neither feared the lord of the vineyard, rose up
suddenly and robbed these meek men, and drove them from their possessions,
killing many.
This barbarous act made no small stir among the men in the vineyard;
and all that portion who were attached to that part of the vineyard where the
men were robbed rose up in grand council, with their chief men, who had
firstly [30] ordered the deed to be done, and made a covenant not to pay for
the cruel deed, but to keep the spoil, and never let those meek men set their
feet on that soil again, neither recompense them for it.
Now these meek men, in their distress, wisely sought redress of those
wicked men in every possible manner, and got none. They supplicated the chief
men who held the vineyard at pleasure, and who had the power to sell and
defend it, for redress and redemption, and those men, loving the fame and
favor of the multitude more than the glory of the lord of the vineyard,
answered, "Your cause is just; but we can do nothing for you, because we have
no power."
Now, when the lord of the vineyard saw that virtue and innocence was not
regarded, and his vineyard occupied by wicked men, he sent men and took the
possession of it to himself, and destroyed these unfaithful servants, and
appointed them their portion among hypocrites.
And let me say that all men who say the Congress has no power to
restore and defend the rights of her citizens have not the love of the truth
abiding in them. Congress has power to protect the nation against foreign
invasion and internal broil; and whenever that body passes an act to maintain
right with any power, or to restore right to any portion of her citizens, it
is the SUPREME LAW OF THE LAND; and should a State refuse submission, that
State is guilty of insurrection or rebellion, and the President has as much
power to repel it as Washington had to march against the "whisky boys at
Pittsburg," or General Jackson had to send an armed force to suppress the
rebellion of South Carolina.
To close, I would admonish you, before you let your "candor compel" you
again to write upon a subject great as the salvation of man, consequential as
the life of the [31] Savior, broad as the principles of eternal truth, and
valuable as the jewels of eternity, to read in the 8th section and 1st article
of the Constitution of the United States, the first, fourteenth, and
seventeenth "specific" and not very "limited powers" of the Federal
Government, what can be done to protect the lives, property, and rights of a
virtuous people, when the administrators of the law and law-makers are
unbought by bribes, uncorrupted by patronage, untempted by gold, unawed by
fear, and uncontaminated by tangling alliances--even like Caesar's wife, not
only unspotted, but unsuspected! And God, who cooled the heat of a
Nebuchadnezzar's furnace or shut the mouths of lions for the honor of a
Daniel, will raise your mind above the narrow notion that the General
Government has no power, to the sublime idea that Congress, with the President
as Executor, is as almighty in its sphere as Jehovah is in His.
With great respect, I have the honor to be
Your obedient servant,
JOSEPH SMITH
Hon. ("Mr.") J. C. CALHOUN, Fort Hill, S. C.

[32] REPLY OF HENRY CLAY.

Ashland, Nov. 15th, 1843.
Dear Sir:-- I have received your letter in behalf of the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, stating that you understand that I am a
candidate for the Presidency, and inquiring what would be by rule of action
relative to you as a people, should I be elected.
I am profoundly grateful for the numerous and strong expressions of the
people in my behalf, as a candidate for President of the United States; but I
do not so consider myself. That much depends upon future events, and upon my
sense of duty.
Should I be a candidate, I can enter into no engagements, make no
promises, give no pledges to any particular portion of the people of the
United States. If I ever enter into that high office, I must go into it free
and unfettered, with no guarantees but such as are to be drawn from my whole
life, character, and conduct.
It is not inconsistent with this declaration to say that I have viewed
with a lively interest the progress of the Latter-day Saints; that I have
sympathized in their sufferings under injustice, as it appeared to me, which
has been inflicted upon them; and that I think, in common with all other
religious communities, they ought to enjoy the security and protection of the
Constitution and the laws.
I am with great respect,
Your friend and obedient servant,
H. CLAY.
To JOSEPH SMITH, Esq.

Post Date: 24th Dec, 2007 - 2:39am / Post ID: #

Quote

Government The Policy Powers

QUOTE

[33] JOSEPH SMITH'S REJOINDER TO HENRY CLAY.

Nauvoo, Illinois,
May 13th, 1844.
Sir:-- Your answer to my inquiry, "What would be your rule of action
towards the Latter-day Saints, should you be elected President of the United
States?" has been under consideration since last November, in the fond
expectation that you would give (for every honest citizen has a right to
demand it,) to the country a manifesto of your views of the best method and
means which would secure to the people, the whole people, the most freedom,
the most happiness, the most union, the most wealth, the most fame, the most
glory at home, and the most honor abroad, at the least expense. But I have
waited in vain. So far as you have made public declarations, they have made,
like your answer to the above, soft to flatter, rather than solid to feed the
people. You seem to abandon all former policy which may have actuated you in
the discharge of a statesman's duty, when the vigor of intellect and the force
of virtue should have sought out an everlasting habitation for liberty; when,
as a wise man, a true patriot, and a friend to mankind, you should have
resolved to ameliorate the lawful condition of our bleeding country by a
mighty plan of wisdom, righteousness, justice, goodness, and mercy, that would
have brought back the golden days of our nation's youth, vigor, and vivacity,
when prosperity crowned the efforts of a youthful republic, when the gentle
aspirations of the sons of liberty were, "We are one!"
In your answer to my questions last fall, that peculiar tact of modern
politicians declaring, "If you ever enter into that high office, you must go
into it free and unfettered, [34] with no guarantees but such as are to be
drawn from your whole life, character, and conduct," so much resembles a
lottery-vendor's sign, with the goddess of good luck sitting on the car of
fortune, a-straddle of the horns of plenty, and driving the merry steeds of
beatitude, without reins or bridle, that I cannot help exclaiming--O frail
man, what have you done that will exalt you? Can anything be drawn from your
life, character, or conduct, that is worthy of being held up to the gaze of
this nation as a model of virtue, charity and wisdom? Are you not a lottery
picture, with more than two blanks to a prize? Leaving many things prior to
your Ghent treaty, let the world look at that, and see where is the wisdom,
honor, and patriotism, which ought to have characterized the plenipotentiary
of the only free nation upon the earth? A quarter of a century's negotiation
to obtain our rights on the north-eastern boundary, and the motley manner in
which Oregon tries to shine as American territory, coupled with your
presidential race and come-by-chance secretaryship, in 1825, all go to
convince the friends of freedom, the golden patriots of Jeffersonian
Democracy, free trade and sailor's rights, and the protectors of persons and
property, that an honorable war is better than a dishonorable peace.
But had you really wanted to have exhibited the wisdom, clemency,
benevolence, and dignity of a great man in this boasted republic, when fifteen
thousand free citizens were exiled from their own homes, lands, and property,
in the wonderful patriotic State of Missouri, and you then upon your oath and
honor occupying the exalted station of a Senator of Congress from the
noble-hearted State of Kentucky why did you not show the world your loyalty to
law and order, by using all honorable means to restore the innocent to their
rights and property? Why, sir, the more [35] we search into your character and
conduct, the more we must exclaim from holy writ, The tree is known by its
fruit.
Again: this is not all. Rather than show yourself an honest man, by
guaranteeing to the people what you will do in case you should be elected
President, "you can enter into no engagement, make no promises, and give no
pledges" as to what you will do. Well, it may be that some hot-headed partisan
would take such nothingarianism upon trust; but sensible men and even ladies
would think themselves insulted by such an evasion of coming events! If a
tempest is expected, why not prepare to meet it, and, in the language of the
poet, exclaim--

"Then let the trial come, and witness thou
If terror be upon me, if I shrink
Or falter in my strength to meet the storm,
When hardest it besets me."

True greatness never wavers; but when the Missouri compromise was
entered into by you, for the benefit of slavery, there was a mighty shrinkage
of western honor; and from that day, sir, the sterling Yankee, the struggling
Abolitionist, and the staunch Democrat, with a large number of the
liberal-minded Whigs, have marked you as a blackleg in politics, begging for a
chance to shuffle yourself into the presidential chair, where you might deal
out the destinies of our beloved country for a game of brag, that would end in
"Hark, from the tombs a doeful sound." Start not at this picture, for your
"whole life, character, and conduct," have been spotted with deeds that cause
a blush upon the face of a virtuous patriot. So you must be contented in your
lot, while crime, cowardice, cupidity, or low cunning, have handed you down
from the high tower of a statesman to the black hole of a gambler.
[36] A man that accepts a challenge, or fights a duel, is nothing more nor
less than a murderer, for the holy writ declares that "whoso sheds man's
blood, by man shall his blood be shed;" and when, in the renowned city of
Washington, the notorious Henry Clay dropped from the summit of a senator to
the sink of a scoundrel, to shoot at that chalk line of a Randolph, he not
only disgraced his own fame, family, and friends, but he polluted the sanctum
sanctorum of American glory; and the kingly backguards throughout the while
world are pointing the finger of scorn at the boasted "asylum of the
oppressed," and hissing at American statesmen, as gentlemen vagabonds and
murderers, holding the olive branch of peace in one hand and a pistol for
death in the other! Well might the Savior rebuke the heads of this nation with
Wo unto you Scribes, Pharisees, Hypocrites, for the United States Government
and Congress, with a few honorable exceptions, have gone the way of Cain, and
must perish in their gainsayings, like Korah and his wicked host. And honest
men of every clime, and the innocent, poor, and oppressed, as well as
Heathens, Pagans and Indians, everywhere, who could but hope that the tree of
liberty would yield some precious fruit for the hungry human race, and shed
some balmy leaves for the healing of nations, have long since given up all
hopes of equal rights, of justice, and judgment, and of truth and virtue, when
such polluted, vain, heaven-daring, bogus patriots, are forced or flung into
the front rank of government, to guide the destinies of millions. Crape the
heavens with weeds of woe, gird the earth with sackcloth, and let hell mutter
one melody in commemoration of fallen splendor! For the glory of America has
departed, and God will set a flaming sword to guard the tree of liberty, while
such mint-tithing Herods as Van Buren, Boggs, Benton, Calhoun, and Clay, are
thrust out of the realms of [37] virtue, as fit subjects for the kingdom of
fallen greatness; vox reprobi, vox Diaboli!
In your late addresses to the people of South Carolina, where rebellion
budded, but could not blossom, you "renounced ultraism," "high tariff," and
almost banished your "banking systems" for the more certain standard of
"public opinion." This is all very well, and marks the intention of a
politician, the calculations of a demagogue, and the allowance for leeings of
a shrewd manager, just as truly as the weathercock does the wind when it turns
upon the spire. Hustings for the south, barbacues for the west, confidential
letters for the north, and "American system" for the east.
"Lull-a-by baby upon the tree top,
And when the wind blows the cradle will rock."
Suppose you should also, taking your "whole life, character, and
conduct," into consideration, and, as many hands make light work, stir up the
old "Clay party," the "National Republican party," the "High Protective Tariff
party," and the late "Coon Skin party," with all their paraphernalia,
ultraism, ne plus ultraiam, sine qua non, which have grown with your growth,
strengthened with your strength, and shrunk with your shrinkage, and ask the
people of this enlightened Republic, what they think of your powers and policy
as a statesman; for verily it would seem, from all past remains of parties,
politics, projects, and pictures, that you are the Clay, and the people the
potter; and as some vessels are marred in the hands of the potter, the natural
conclusion is, that you are a vessel of dishonor.
You may complain that a close examination of your "whole life,
character, and conduct" places you, as a Kentuckian would pleasantly term it,
"in a bad fix." But, sir, when the nation has sunk deeper and deeper in the
[38] mud at every turn of the great wheels of the Union, while you have acted
as one of the principal drivers, it becomes the bounden duty of the whole
community, as one man, to whisper you on every point of government, to uncover
every act of your life, and inquire what mighty acts you have done to benefit
the nation, how much you have tithed the mint to gratify your lust, and why
the fragments of your raiment hang upon the thorns by the path as signals to
beware!
But your shrinkage is truly wonderful! Not only your banking system and
high tariff project, have vanished from your mind, "like the baseless fabric
of a vision," but the "annexation of Texas" has touched your pathetic
sensibilities of national pride so acutely, that the poor Texans, your own
brethren, may fall back into the ferocity of Mexico, or be sold at auction to
British stock-jobbers, and all is well, for "I" the old senator from Kentucky,
am fearful it would militate against my interest in the north, to enlarge the
borders of the Union in the south. Truly, "a poor wise child is better than an
old foolish king, who will be no longer admonished." Who ever heard of a
nation that had too much territory? Was it ever bad policy to make friends?
Has any people ever become too good to do good! No, never; but the ambition
and vanity of some men have flown away with their wisdom and judgment, and
left a croaking skeleton to occupy the place of a noble soul.
Why, sir, the condition of the whole earth is lamentable. Texas dreads
the teeth and toe nails of Mexico. Oregon has the rheumatism, brought on by a
horrid exposure to the heat and cold of British and American trappers; Canada
has caught a bad cold from extreme fatigue in the patriot war; South America
has the headache, caused by bumps against the beams of Catholicity and Spanish
sov-[39]ereignty. Spain has the gripes from age and inquisition. France
trembles and wastes under the effects of contagious diseases. England groans
with the gout, and wiggles with wine. Italy and the German States are pale
with consumption. Prussia, Poland, and the little contiguous dynasties,
duchies, and domains, have the mumps so severely, that "the whole head is
sick, and the whole heart is faint." Russia has the cramp by lineage. Turkey
has the numb palsy. Africa, from the curse of God, has lost the use of her
limbs. China is ruined by the Queen's evil, and the rest of Asia fearfully
exposed to the small-pox, the natural way, from British peddlers. The islands
of the sea are almost dead with the scurvy. The Indians are blind and lame and
the United States, which ought to be the good physician with "balm from
Gilead" and an "asylum for the oppressed," has boosted and is boosting up into
the council chamber of the Government a clique of political gamblers, to play
for the old clothes and old shoes of a sick world, and "no pledge, no promise
to any particular portion of the people" that the rightful heirs will ever
receive a cent of their father's legacy! Away with such self-important,
self-aggrandizing and self-willed demagogues! Their friendship is colder than
polar ice, and their profession meaner than the damnation of hell.
O man! when such a great dilemma of the globe, such a tremendous
convulsion of kingdoms shakes the earth from centre to circumference; when
castles, prison-houses, and cells raise a cry to God against the cruelty of
man; when the mourning of the fatherless and the widow causes anguish in
heaven; when the poor among all nations cry day and night for bread, and a
shelter from the heat and storm; and when the degraded black slave holds up
his manacled hands to the great statesmen of the United States, and sings--
[40] "O liberty, where are thy charms,
That sages have told me were sweet?"
And when fifteen thousand free citizens of the high-blooded republic of North
America are robbed and driven from one State to another without redress or
redemption, it is not only time for a candidate for the Presidency to pledge
himself to execute judgment and justice in righteousness, law or no law; but
it is his bounden duty as a man, for the honor of a disgraced country, and for
the salvation of a once virtuous people to call for a union of all honest men,
and appease the wrath of God by acts of wisdom, holiness, and virtue! "The
fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much."
Perhaps you may think I go too far with my strictures and innuendos,
because in your concluding paragraph you say:--"It is not inconsistent with
your declarations to say, that you have viewed with a lively interest the
progress of the Latter-day Saints, that you have sympathized in their
sufferings, under injustice, as it appeared to you, which has been inflicted
upon them; and that you think, in common with all other religious communities,
they ought to enjoy the security and protection of the Constitution and the
laws." If words were not wind, and imagination not a vapor, such "views" "with
a lively interest" might coax out a few "Mormon" votes; such "sympathy" for
their suffering under injustice might heal some of the sick, yet lingering
amongst them; raise some of the dead, and recover some of their property, from
Missouri; and finally, if thought was not a phantom, we might, in common with
other religious communities, "you think," enjoy the security and protection of
the Constitution and laws. But during ten years, while the Latter-day Saints
have bled, been robbed, driven from their own lands, paid oceans of money into
the Treasury to pay your renowned self and others for [41] legislating and
dealing out equal rights and privileges to those in common with all other
religious communities, they have waited and expected in vain! If you have
possessed any patriotism, it has been veiled by your popularity for fear the
Saints would fall in love with its charms. Blind charity and dumb justice
never to much towards alleviating the wants of the needy, but straws show
which way the wind blows. It is currently rumored that your dernier resort for
the Latter-day Saint is to emigrate to Oregon or California. Such cruel
humanity, such noble injustice, such honorable cowardice, such foolish wisdom,
and such vicious virtue, could only emanate from Clay. After the Saints have
been plundered of three or four millions of land and property, by the people
and powers of the sovereign State of Missouri--after they have sought for
redress and redemption from the county court to Congress, and been denied
through religious prejudice and sacerdotal dignity--after they have builded a
city and two temples at an immense expense of labor and treasure--after they
have increased from hundreds to hundreds of thousands--and after they have
sent missionaries to the various nations of the earth, to gather Israel,
according to the predictions of all the holy prophets since the world
began--that great plenipotentiary, the renowned Secretary of State, the
ignoble duellist, the gambling senator, and Whig candidate for the presidency,
Henry Clay, the wise Kentucky lawyer, advises the Latter-day Saints to go to
Oregon, to obtain justice, and set up a government of their own. O ye crowned
heads among all nations, is not Mr. Clay a wise man, and very patriotic! Why,
great God! to transport 200,000 people through a vast prairie, over the Rocky
Mountains, to Oregon, a distance of nearly 2,000 miles, would cost more than
four millions, or should they go by Cape Horn, in ships to California, the
cost would be more [42] than twenty millions! and all this to save the United
States from inheriting the disgrace of Missouri, for murdering and robbing the
Saints with impunity! Benton and Van Buren, who make no secret to say, if they
get into power they will carry out Boggs' exterminating plan, to rid the
country of the Latter-day Saints, are
"Little nipperkins of milk,"
compared to "Clay's" great aquafortis jars. Why, he is a real giant in
humanity! "Send the Mormons to Oregon and free Missouri from debt and
disgrace!" Ah! sir, let this doctrine go to-and-fro throughout the whole
earth--that we, as Van Buren said, know your cause is just, but the United
States Government can do nothing for you, because it has no power. "You must
go to Oregon, and get justice from the Indians!"
I mourn for the depravity of the world; I despise the hypocrisy of
Christendom; I hate the imbecility of American statesmen; I detest the
shrinkage of candidates for office, from pledges and responsibility: I long
for a day of righteousness, when He "whose right it is to reign, shall judge
the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth," and I pray God,
who hath given our fathers a promise of a perfect government in the last days,
to purify the hearts of the people, and hasten the welcome day.
With the highest considerations for virtue and unadulterated freedom, I
have the honor to be,
Your obedient servant,
JOSEPH SMITH.
HON. H. CLAY, Ashland, Ky.

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Powers And Policy Of The Government

Powers Policy Government - Mormon Doctrine Studies - Posted: 24th Dec, 2007 - 2:39am

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