Freedom and Personal Liberty
It is always a difficult occasion for me to ask our Heavenly Father that I might have the Spirit to say those things that are proper at a time like this. I know that God lives. I know that Jesus is the Christ. To communicate that to others is very easy. The difficult part, for you young men and women who are about to embark on your two-year missions, is how do you get somebody else to feel that Spirit. Because this Spirit respects free agency, you cannot force somebody to believe; he has to have free agency. What does that mean in a free land?
I thought today (and I will come back to this subject of free agency as it applies to each of us individually) that because it is July 6 we should spend a minute or two reviewing our history and the reasons why we can assemble here today in such a free way. We are a free people because of what we have just celebrated, an event that happened 199 years ago–the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
Our Heritage of Freedom
Possibly Patrick Henry summed up the tensions of that time as he spoke to the Virginia Convention of Delegates on March 23, 1775. I will read excerpts from his speech. It is familiar to many of you who are history students. He said:
I know of no way of judging of the future but by the past. And judging by the past, I wish to know what there has been in the conduct of the British ministry for the last ten years, to justify those hopes. . . Ask yourselves how this gracious reception of our petition comports with these war-like preparations which cover our waters and darken our lands. Are fleets and armies necessary to a work of love and reconciliation? Have we shown ourselves so unwilling to be reconciled that force must be called in to win back our love? . . . [that there will be reconciliation].
They tell us, sir, that we are weak; unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? . . . Sir, we are not weak, if we make a proper use of the means which the God of nature hath placed in our power. Three millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations; and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. . . . There is no retreat, but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable–and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come!
. . . Gentlemen may cry peace, peace–but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! . . . Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!
That is why we are able to gather here this day–because men have been willing to give their lives–as stated in this impassioned speech of Patrick Henry–for liberty, for life, and for the pursuit of happiness.
There are three questions that Patrick Henry’s speech brings up: (1) Was this really a holy cause of liberty, as he said? (2) Is there a just God, who presides over the destinies of nations? (3) Is free agency important? Should we have liberty, or should we have bondage? To all three questions, for those of us who are here this day, the answer is an emphatic yes. Free agency is important. We know that there is a God who presides over this world and who looks after the destinies of nations.
Six hundred years before Christ an ancient American prophet foresaw the establishment of the colonies and the War of Independence. This is what he said:
And it came to pass that I, Nephi, beheld the Gentiles who had gone forth out of captivity did humble themselves before the Lord; and the power of the Lord was with them.
And I beheld that their mother Gentiles were gathered together upon the waters, and upon the land also, to battle against them.
And I beheld that the power of God was with them, and also that the wrath of God was upon all those who were gathered together against them to battle.
And I, Nephi, beheld that the Gentiles that had gone out of captivity were delivered by the power of God out of the hands of all other nations. [1 Nephi 13:1619]
Another ancient prophet outlined the principles upon which the freedom of this land depends:
For behold, this is a land which is choice above all other lands; wherefore he that doth possess it shall serve God or shall be swept off; for it is the everlasting decree of God. . . .
Behold, this is a choice land, and whatsoever nation shall possess it shall be free from bondage, and from captivity, and from all other nations under heaven, if they will but serve the God of the land, who is Jesus Christ. [Ether 2:10, 12]
It is clear, therefore, that to preserve our liberty, our national freedom, and ultimately our personal free agency, we have a responsibility to serve God.
Are there any among us who would disagree with the founders of our nation or who would say that they were not inspired and dedicated men? The Lord, in a revelation to Joseph Smith, stated this truth simply: “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).
Do you realize the heritage that we have? On July 4, I had the opportunity of giving a talk in St. George. There the words of President Wilford Woodruff came to my mind, his great tribute to our founding fathers:
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, . . . inspired of the Lord.
. . . 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. . . . Would those spirits have called upon me, as an Elder of Israel, to perform that work if they had not been noble spirits before God? They would not. [Conference Report, April 1898, pp. 8990]
Said they, ” . . . 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.” [Journal of Discourses, 19:229]
Knowing that this is a choice land, a nation with a divine mission, founded under the guiding hand of God the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ, we ask, “What is our obligation to preserve the tenets of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights?” I thought I would make a comment or two about what the basic tenets of these documents are. I would hope that every one of us here this evening would take the time some evening on a date to read the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and maybe a few other things. (I noticed in reading from the history of the Church that Brigham Young at the July Fourth celebration had the whole Constitution read before the people started their festivities. I noticed at St. George we did not do that.)
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