The Spirit of America: A “Mormon” Political Ideal

IMPROVEMENT ERA Vol. XIV. JULY, 1911. - No. 9 The Spirit of America. A "Mormon" Political Ideal. BY WILLIAM A. HYDE, PRESIDENT OF THE POCATELLO STAKE OF ZION. On the shores of the Atlantic there stands a statue, the conception of a man, to symbolize the mission of America; but neither he who made it, nor the people who accepted the gift, nor the admiring thousands who gaze upon it,know how deeply the lofty sentiment that prompted its creation is founded in the will of God. With the ordinary observer, the connection of this statue, if any is sought to be established, is with the American people, and not with the continent, but to the minds of those who have beheld and heard the truths in the history of this hemisphere, the spirit that statue represents existed five thousand years before its concrete form at the hands of Bartholdi. In the days in which God appointed unto the nations of the earth "the bounds of their habitation," (Acts 17: 26) this land was dedicated for a mighty purpose, no less a purpose than the nursing ground of liberty, that upon it important plans of God might be accomplished. The great revolution of nature that

762 IMPROVEMENT ERA. broke the earth as a piece of pottery, and scattered the lands and divided them with water, (Gen. 10: 25) was a part of a great design; that the western land, void of inhabitants, was left virgin and unknown was part of the same design. In the absence of complete records of that day, much is left for us to imagine, but it is as if the Omnipotent had said, when he surveyed a world cleansed from its rank corruption by the washing of his flood, "Here let my children begin once more to multiply; but lest they turn again to evil and pollute the earth, I will preserve this choice portion for a fortress of righteousness in the day thereof;" and he established the bounds of waters, and circled them round about to keep this his special heritage. If there were such a divine provision, it had its early justification, for when the descendants of Noah grew in numbers and increased again in wickedness, and were confounded and scattered at Babel by the wrath of God, as chaff is blown by a blast of wind, he could direct the righteous few who sought him, to gather together their families, with their flocks and seeds, "and go to the valley northward," saying, And there will I meet thee, and I will go before thee unto a land that is choice above all the lands of the earth, and there will I bless thee and thy seed. . . . And there shall be none greater than the nation I shall raise up unto me of thy seed, upon all the face of the earth. And thus I will do unto thee, because this long time ye have cried unto me (Ether 1: 42-3). Now the first direct intimation in history of the sacredness of this hemisphere appears, for as these ancient men set their faces toward this choice land—no doubt with hearts beating high at the favor of God—they were placed under a charge, to be enforced by a penalty so awful that, had they not been actuated by pure and righteous desires, they must have turned back in fear. The sacred record says: And he had sworn in his wrath unto the brother of Jared, that whoso should possess the land of promise, from that time henceforth and forever, should serve him, the true and only God, or they should be swept off when the fulness of his wrath should come upon them. . . . Wherefore, he that doth possess it shall serve God, or shall be swept off, for it is the everlasting decree of God.

THE SPIRIT OF AMERICA. 763 Tben, as they must have hesitated in fear, how reassuring and hopeful to them was the promise that now they heard: Behold, this is a choice land, and whatsoever nation shall possess it shall be free from bondage and captivity, and from all other nations under heaven, if they will but serve the God of this land, who is Jesus Christ, who hath been manifested by the things that we have written (Ether 2: 10-12). History tells us more than once upon what slippery grounds men stand when they covenant for posterity. Records become dim in the mind, and are at last displaced by the current sweep of life's events. Personal testimonies that beam in the eye and vibrate in the voice, in one step become tradition, in the next fables, and the next myths. By that unexplained mystery of birth, bad men come of righteous fathers, and in the maze of centuries new generations stand around the tombs of saints, remembering merely that they lived; for there is no memory of righteousness but in righteous lives. So this mighty nation, begotten of God's promise, lived, flourished and forgot. It mattered little to those whose minds were steeped in evil that the secret of God's love for this land was now revealed, that it was to be a place for the "New Jerusalem which should come down out of heaven, and the holy sanctuary of the Lord" (Ether 13). It mattered less that the covenants of the fathers were repeated to them, for in the ripening of their iniquities they comprehended not, and heard not the rolling thunders of God's wrath, till the storm of his fury burst upon their heads, and his warning was vindicated, and this land, again defiled, was freed from its stain, as the sacred soil drank in the blood of its polluters! It argues much for the tenderness of the Almighty, that this result should not harden his heart against the race, for the record reveals him again dealing with men for the colonizing once more of these favored continents. In marvelous vision (I Nephi 13; II Nephi 10) he shows this land, repeats the conditions he imposes as to the faithfulness of those who shall possess it, and traces its history down to the end of time. He shows its discovery by Columbus, under the inspiration of his Spirit; its peopling by a race of valiant men, the subjects of a foreign king; their delivery from

764 IMPROVEMENT ERA. thraldom, in line with the covenant of old under the power of the Lord, and reveals for the first time its international importance, repeating again the blfssed promise: And this land shall be a land of liberty unto the Gentiles, and there shall be no kings upon the land, who shall raise up unto the Gentiles, and I will fortify this land against all other nations. The sign and seal of Divine title again is set upon the Western Hemisphere. Again we see men step upon its shores charged with the mission to keep that title clear. Where else might the Lord sow his truth as a witness to his Eastern Israel? Burn and plow the stubble fields of Grecian, false philosophy and mythology, only to have them choked by the weeds of Roman error and superstition? Sweep the plains of China of the errors of Confucianism, only to find Buddhism take root? No! Rather take the virgin soil, set apart, where neither thistles nor error can blow, nor roots of pagan philosophy can spread, and there plant again the everlasting truth! But here, as ever, began again the old-time struggle for the rights of men, and the rights of men are but their liberties. Does not all evil originate in the desire to enslave? There is little difference between chains upon the wrists, or upon the wills or consciences of men. In a thousand years of fast recurring wars this continent becomes the field of the most sanguinary conflict for liberty that the world has ever seen. Titans there were who towered high above their fellows, matching the heroes of all time. Nephi recognized the presiding genius of the land, and, refusing a crown, stood forth one of the greatest leaders of the earth. Warriors there were who could have checked Hannibal or worried Napoleon; and these prophesied or fought as the day demanded. Ye men who boast of patriotism, heard ye ever of such a flag as this—that having no cloth, a man should tear his cloak and write upon a piece of it: In Memory of our God, our Religion, and Freedom, and our Peace, our Wives, and our Children! (Alma 46: 12.) Does the Stars and Stripes stand for more than that? And, in the history of all warfare, have men before or since worn a literal shield of faith, as did the two thousand "sons of Helaman?"

THE SPIRIT OF AMERICA. 765 (Alma 57.) And thus again, with varying fortunes, were fought out the issues of this continent; but what matters it to the cause of liberty, if now, as before, her robes were sullied by the crimes of a race, and her cause for the time seemed lost? It was not lost, for its past was treasured in the sacred urn of history, to inspire and renew a future conflict in its defense, and the Spirit of America still stood guard over a continent where victorious red men wandered, carrying in their faces not even a suggestion of their former greatness. She wept over the ruins of her ancient temples, but her mind was turned toward the fulfilment of the decree of God, that should see her robed and crowned again among an intelligent people. She stood upon the Atlantic shores, as her effigy now stands today, and her eyes pierced the distance watching for the coming of the man across the waters! How steady the onward flow of the centuries! They garner the lives of men in their enfolding cycles, roll into the infinite space, and one by one drop into the treasury of eternity. A millennium passes over the ruins of a vanished race, obliterating with kindly hand the signs of a nation's woe, and there is ushered in the last time of the prophecy; the Spirit of God rests upon a man and he sails forth in obedience to the inexorable call. Had Ferdinand and Isabella and all Spain decreed otherwise, still he must have come. A thousand others, seeing liberty, followed after, until the land was sown again with the seed of a nation; and as the doors of the northern continent lay open, why should thers not rush through them like hordes of adventurers to those that pillaged the southern lands? Was it a happy chance merely that brought to our shores the staunchest principles in the staunchest minds of all Europe? Rather had God selected these for the working out of his plans! No messenger as of God tells them their mission, yet a hundred prophets with inspired tongues teach the law of righteousness and freedom. The Spirit of America is in the hearts of men. They seem to feel that this is freedom's soil, and the genius of the continent broods over them, baptizing them in its fire, and they are born anew. The old order of kings, with its power deeprooted in the bone and muscle of servitude, now stands marshaled in battle with the new order of freemen. The conflict that fol-

766 IMPROVEMENT ERA. lowed could not result otherwise than it did, for God captained the armies of the colonies. If it be true that the departed great sometimes participate in mortal things, is it asking of the imagination too much if we picture the glorious old soldier, Moroni, who bore the rent cloak, and fighting a hundred battles delivered his people, as sitting at the councils of our Washington? Is it too much to believe that those who under him endured and suffered long and learned patience, and through that patience gained the victory, should comfort our freezing soldiers in their vigils? Or is it out of the sphere of legitimate sentiment if we think that the shades of the mighty who championed God's cause in the past should now, with the knowledge of the impending fulfilment of their dreams, stand in the thin ranks of the Continentals and strengthen and encourage them? By what unseen forces are men from time to time charged with a mission? Could Columbus have said why he became the servant of an idea? Could Samuel Adams tell what leaven worked in him? Could Patrick Henry trace the source of his impassioned speech, or Jefferson know the treasury from which his wisdom sprung? Could Washington in refusing a crown, and in laying his sword at the feet of Congress, committing his country to the care of God, who had thus far delivered it, know that the compelling power of this grand act was the Spirit of America voiced in prophecy, and possessing him as truly as ever Isaiah was possessed? So when at last our flag had won its place, Liberty had entered once more into her full dominion, to begin again under more favorable conditions the work of redeeming and preparing this blessed land for its mission, the worship of the "God of this land, who is Jesus Christ, who was manifest by the things that are written." And lest there should occur again the experiences of the past, with what infinite pains she hedged the sacred heritage of freedom! The bulwark of a constitution, the like of which was never known before, was reared against the powers of oppression, from whatever source they might come (Doc. and Cov. 101: 77). By the declaration of the Monroe Doctrine she broadened her mantle until its skirts enfolded her sister states on the south. That men might not be tempted to kingly ambition by long terms

THE SPIRIT OF AMERICA. 767 of power, she set the lofty precedent of a Washington who could lay down not only his sword but his sceptre; that monarchs might not make a breech in the walls and breed their kind upon our shores, behold the fate of Maximilian and Dom Pedro! That slavery in any guise whatever, or of any race or color, might not grow here, she gave the lives of a million men, and the treasures of a world! These things, great as they are, are but the mere details, the plan of which lay in the mind of God; and all these men who sweep before us in a grand array are but the actors in the drama of Liberty, whose stage is the mighty continent which, by the grace of God, we now inhabit. Less than one hundred and fifty years old—a child yet among the nations—the United States sits at the councils of kings and rulers, their very arbiter. As a tribute to her mission, the world looks to the torch she bears as guiding the way to safety. Ninety million souls swarm in her cities, and inhabit her broad plains; and these a mixed race, carrying in their veins the blood of every land, are being fused into a mighty force. The great problem for these to solve is not the watering of their lands, nor the nursing of their forests, nor the tariffs, nor the trusts. There is one great, overshadowing issue in America—it is that we shall keep sacred that spirit whose image stands by the mightv waters. God's decree is not written in the sand, to be obliterated by the waves of time, but it is an eternal edict that all who possess this land shall serve him, if it is to be a land of liberty to them. 0 America, thou giant, strong in the strength of mighty youth—fearing no invader—fear thou the enemy within thy gates! Who is it shall enslave thee but thine own unrighteousness? Who shall conquer thee but thine own injustice? Who shall destroy thee but thine own perverseness? Keeper of God's inheritance, receptacle of Liberty, be true to thy charge, lest thy multitudes be as naught, and thy glory fade as the sun that sinks in darkness! Of those who have honored me by reading thus far, there will be two classes: one that has felt the conviction of the truths herein, and one that doubts the authority upon which it mainly rests. To the former let me say, How happy should he be in whose mind and heart there comes the blending of the wish of