And that law of the land which is constitutional, supporting that principle of freedom in maintaining rights and privileges, belongs to all mankind, and is justifiable before me. …whatsoever is more or less than this, cometh of evil.
People who are willing—and we have some of them in this country—to trade freedom for security, are sowing the seeds of destruction and deserve neither freedom nor security.
This freedom must be continually guarded as something more priceless than life itself. Any program that would tend to weaken this freedom is inherently dangerous and should be guarded against.
I wonder if [our pioneer fathers] would not recognize that our liberties have already been abridged, that there has been too much of a tendency for us to call upon our federal government every time we felt the need for the accomplishment of any particular objective. …which our forefathers would have done willingly for themselves.
If we are living the gospel, we will feel in our hearts that the First Presidency of the Church not only have the right, but are also duty bound under heaven to give counsel on any subject which affects the temporal or spiritual welfare of the Latter-day Saints, regardless of whether or not some men may think such counsel may have political implications.
Let us as Latter-day Saints stand on our own feet. Let us not be inclined to run to a paternalistic government for help when every problem arises, but to attack our problems jointly, and through effective cooperative effort, solve our problems at home.
As a watchman on the tower, I feel to warn you that one of the chief means of misleading our youth and destroying the family unit is our educational institutions.
God will have a free people, and while we have a duty to perform to preach the Gospel, we have another to perform, that is, to stand up in the defense of human rights—in the defense of our own rights, the rights of our children, and in defense of the rights of this nation and of all men, no matter who they may be…
We see abroad today on every hand, and to some degree in our own land, the spread of coercive man-made systems, which are contrary to eternal principles… such as communism, fascism, or any form of state control.
…I declare to you this morning that human liberty is the mainspring of human progress. The one great revolution in the world is the revolution for human liberty. This was the paramount issue in the great council in heaven before this earth life. It has been the issue throughout the ages. It is the issue today.