---
title: Improvement Era
description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930.
authors:
  - Grant, Heber J.
collections:
  - periodicals
tags:
  - magazine
  - improvement-era
periodical: Improvement Era
volume: 31
number: 6
published: 1928-04
publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
publisher_place: Salt Lake City
language: en
type: magazine
reference: "Heber J. Grant, “The Upholding of Constituted Law and Order,” *Improvement Era* 31, no. 6 (April 1928): 508–508."
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera3106unse
  transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers.
  identifier: improvementera3106unse
start_page: 508
end_page: 508
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1928-04)
  source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera3106unse
  publication_year: 1928
  note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1928, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright.
---

# The Upholding of Constituted Law and Order

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<v-^p/$ The Upholding of Constituted Law and Order Address of President Heber J. Grant, Delivered in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Utah, Sunday, February 12, 1928. It is always a pleasure to me to meet with the Latter-day Saints in any of the public gatherings. I am ever ready and willing to exhort the Saints to faithfulness and diligence in the discharge of the many duties and obligations resting upon them as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and to encourage them, to the best of my ability, both by precept and example, to serve our heavenly Father. When I consented to address the con- gregation here today, it did not occur to me that today is the birthday of the great emancipator, the immortal Lincoln. It was not until last evening, after a busy day, going to Ogden to the dedication of an addition to the Dee Memorial hospital, that it dawned upon me, as I glanced at the evening paper, that all over the United States and almost all over the world today people would be paying tribute to Abraham Lincoln. Perhaps no other people in all the world look upon Abraham Lincoln as an in- spired servant of God, a man raised up by God to occupy the presidential chair, as much as do the Latter-day Saints. Prophecy Concerning Douglas In the early days of the Church, Joseph Smith utilized the services of Stephen A. Douglas, who was then a country judge in Illinois, Nauvoo at the time being the larg- est city in the state of Illinois. Among other things, the Prophet said to Judge Douglas: "Judge, you will aspire to the presidency of the United States; and if you ever turn your hand against me or the Latter-day Saints, you will feel the weight of the hand of Al- mighty God upon you: and you will live to see and know that I have testified the truth to you, for the conversation of this day will stick to you through life." This was in 1 844, only a short time before the martyrdom of the Prophet Jo- seph Smith. Stephen A. Douglas saw fit later, during his campaign for the presidency of the United States, to make a speech, against the "Mormon" people, in which he said: "Nine-tenths of the inhabitants of Utah Territory are foreign-born. They refuse to become citizens, or to recognize the govern- ment of the United States as permanent authority." This man knew as well as he knew that he lived that he was falsifying when he made this statement, because Joseph Smith had published to the world during his life time, (and he had been dead some years at this time) the following: "We claim the privilege of worshiping Al- mighty God according to the dictates of out own conscience and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where or what they may." "We believe in being subject to kings, pres- idents, rulers and magistrates; in obeying, honoring and sustaining the law." As Caesar Felt These are two of the Articles of Faith of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day Saints, and Douglas was aware of this fact when he was an obscure judge. When he made this false statement, he knew that the great majority of the people who came to Utah, in early days, were of New Eng- land and eastern states extraction. Stephen A. Douglas undoubtedly felt much as the great Caesar felt, who undertook to set at