For This Purpose

In the revelation addressing the expulsion of the Saints from Jackson County, the Lord said this: “According to the laws and constitution of the people, which I have suffered to be established, and should be maintained for the rights and protection of all flesh, according to just and holy principles; That every man may act in doctrine and principle pertaining to futurity, according to the moral agency which I have given unto him, that every man may be accountable for his own sins in the day of judgment. Therefore, it is not right that any man should be in bondage one to another. (80) And for this purpose have I established the Constitution of this land, by the hands of wise men whom I raised up unto this very purpose, and redeemed the land by the shedding of blood” (Doctrine and Covenants 101:77-80). As I thought about this passage today, I was struck by the reason the Lord gave for establishing the Constitution. I think we can understand everything is verses 77-79 as the antecedent to what He said in verse 80: “for this purpose I have established the Constitution.” In other words, He established the Constitution for the “rights and protection of all flesh” and to protect “moral agency” so that “every man may be accountable.” But perhaps most important was what He said in verse 79, directly before saying “for this purpose”: “It is not right that any man should be in bondage one to another.” One of the main purposes that the Lord inspired the Constitution of the United States was to end slavery.

                Knowing that the Constitution originally allowed the slave trade to exist for twenty years after the Constitution, we might argue that the document didn’t do a very good job of ending slavery. But it certainly paved the way for established freedoms that ultimately did lead to the abolishing of slavery in what became part of the Constitution in the 13^th amendment, after the above revelation: “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude… shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” It is interesting that one of the major reasons that the Saints were kicked out of Jackson County was the issue of slavery. William W. Phelps published an article in the summer of 1833 discussing the possibility of free blacks coming to Zion and describing the laws at the time. The Missourians understood his words as inviting them to come, and that’s when the violence started. They were adamant about preserving the institution of slavery and accused the Saints of tampering with their slaves. I have to wonder if the Lord’s words as a part of His response to what happened to be describing the future as well as the past: “I established the Constitution of this land, by the hands of wise men whom I raised up unto this very purpose, and redeemed the land by the shedding of blood.” In some sense the land was redeemed by the shedding of blood during the Revolutionary War, but perhaps He was also looking forward to the blood that would be shed in the Civil War as an enormous price to end slavery. This revelation shows that the Lord was interested in more than just maintaining the rights of the Saints who had been expulsed from Zion but also the rights of all men and women, especially those still in the bondage of slavery.   

                One article described Joseph Smith’s response to slavery towards the end of his life. It records, “After the Saints had been driven from Missouri and had settled in Illinois, however, Joseph Smith gradually became more outspoken in his opposition to slavery. He asked how the United States could claim that ‘all men are created equal’ while ‘two or three millions of people are held as slaves for life, because the spirit in them is covered with a darker skin than ours.’ As a U.S. presidential candidate in 1844, Joseph called for the federal government to end slavery within six years by raising money to compensate former slaveholders.” That of course did not happen, and it took a much higher cost in the lives of nearly 700,000 people in the American Civil War to end the abominable practice. We are grateful that, like it was for the Nephites of the Book of Mormon, now “it is against the law… that there should be any slaves among them” (Alma 27:9). And we hope for the day when we will believe and live according to these words of Nephi: “All are alike unto God” (2 Nephi 26:33).