Joseph Smith — "I am a lover of the Constitution, and I believe in the principles of republicani…"
I am a lover of the Constitution, and I believe in the principles of republicanism.
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Understanding this quote
What it means
The speaker declares loyalty to the U.S. Constitution and to republicanism — the idea that government draws authority from the people, not from hereditary rulers or unchecked power. He values written law as a bulwark against tyranny and believes citizens' rights must be protected through representative institutions. It is a statement of political faith: that law, not force or privilege, should govern a free society.
Relevance to Joseph Smith
Smith ran for U.S. President in 1844, the year he was killed. His Mormon community suffered government-sanctioned expulsion from Missouri in 1838 and mob violence throughout Illinois. Smith repeatedly invoked constitutional protections for his people's religious liberty. He also taught that the Constitution was divinely inspired — a belief still central to LDS theology — making this quote both a political position and a sincere article of faith.
The era
In the 1830s–1840s, the Constitution was barely 50 years old and its meaning fiercely contested. Debates over slavery, states' rights, and westward expansion strained the republic. Religious minorities like the Mormons faced violent persecution with little federal recourse. Jacksonian democracy was simultaneously expanding populist politics and suffrage. Invoking the Constitution and republicanism was both a principled stand and a practical appeal for equal protection under a law that rarely shielded his community.
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