Joseph Smith Jr. Quotes
Your constitution guarantees to every citizen, even the humblest, the enjoyment of life, liberty, and property. It promises to all, religious freedom, the right to all to worship God beneath their own vine and fig tree, according to the dictates of their conscience. It guarantees to all the citizens of the several states the right to become citizens of any one of the states, and to enjoy all the rights and immunities of the citizens of the state of his adoption.
Smith, Joseph. History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Vol. 6, Deseret News, 1912, p. 65.
He had been a Congressman before assuming the Presidency. Civil rights was a major subject of debate after the Civil War. One major issue was that of citizenship itself. Many contended that Americans were citizens of a state and dependant on the state for the protection of civil rights. However, the extent to which the Federal government could and should be the guarantor of citizenship issues was in dispute. Today with the issue settled in favor of Federal preeminence, it is hard to realize that this was very unsettled at one point in history. Garfield was one of those leading the effort for more Federal involvement and control.
See {587703} for a similar statement by a Supreme Court Justice.
The call for individual liberty and the right of personal property by clergy is surprising to many. This Cahier was the consensus of the Clergy of Blois in 1789. There were cahiers of several provinces of France—some by the clergy, some by the nobles. What is fascinating is the emergence of many of the pre-Revolutionary French concepts. The example of the American revolution and its principles was known throughout the educated classes of France.
Hayward claimed that Wilson was the first American President who ever criticized the American Constitution. Many do not agree as Madison and Jefferson in part, along with most other Americans, found the Constitution so wanting that it was ratified only on condition of the passage of the Bill of Rights. Jackson, was distressed by the limitations on the President and many others had their objections, but Wilson, before he became a politician was a prominent academic political scientist and wrote voluminously and had an intellectual following so his criticism was not considered so “political” as others.
Joseph Smith, Jr. was an American religious leader and founder of Mormonism and the Latter Day Saint movement. When he was twenty-four, Smith published the Book of Mormon. By the time of his death fourteen years later, he had attracted tens of thousands of followers and founded a religious culture that continues to the present.
