As found in The Utah Magazine, October 23rd, 1869
Note: gendered terms have been modified in this transcription to be gender-neutral
The tendency of all despotisms is to overgovern. It is not only an evil, but an error which, eventually, defeats the object sought to be gained. Restraint is always irksome, and though it may, from necessity, be submitted to for a time, yet the spirit chafes under it and seeks to escape from, or throw off, the oppressive and unnatural authority. With adults, as well as children, the fewer the requirements and the less the governing power is felt the better. The laws that govern the movements of the material universe are few and simple, yet they produce grand results and maintain order and harmony in the spheres. But were God to undertake to control and hamper the operations of nature, as many people have attempted to hamper and dictate in another’s mind in different ages on the earth, God would, as they have done, pile huge and overwhelming responsibilities upon God’s self and involve the universe in inextricable confusion and conflict.
Nature, whether in the elements or in humanity, needs not so much hampering and controlling as freedom and guidance. The object of laws should be to preserve, as far as possible, free scope to the faculties of humanity and the operations of nature, and to prevent any unnecessary or interference in the exercise of either. Laws to compel humanity to breathe, eat, drink and sleep would be quite as sensible and consistent as many that are enacted for the government of society. Some people seem so dreadfully afraid that nature will go wrong that it would be no matter of surprise should they seek, by legal enactments, to compel the sun to shine, water to run down hill, and fire to burn. Such folly would only be consistent with their character. How long will it take us to learn that nature needs encouraging and developing instead of guiding or crushing. The latter course has cursed the world for ages, [inhibited] its progress, extinguished many of its brightest lights, and cut out much of its life and joy. It practically says that God has left Their work unfinished and that human wisdom must step in to supply the Divine deficiencies. The true object of all human legislation, as before remarked, is to secure to every individual the greatest personal liberty, and the freest exercise of every faculty and power of their organization, consistent with the exercise of the same rights in others and the general welfare of society. The simpler the laws by which these objects can be secured the better for all parties.
The divine wisdom and goodness was manifested by Jesus and his apostles in the early Christian Church by making the conditions of membership as few and as simple as possible, but afterwards people, assuming to themselves prerogatives which Deity never asserted, continued, in various ages, to multiply these conditions, until today thousands of people in different parts of the earth groan under the galling yokes and the heavy mental burdens that have taken the place of the easy toke and light burden impressed by the Great Teacher himself.
In the abstract, people admit love to be more powerful than fear, and that a throne based upon the love of a people is more secure than one sustained by a million bayonets. But as the love of power grows upon them, they become impatient of this slow but sure means of accomplishing their objects and adopt the shorter but less enduring process of mental or physical compulsion. The edifice thus speedily erected, however, sooner or later, crumbles to dust, and all their cherished dreams end in vexation and disappointment.
Thank God, the day of force and coercion, with in inquisitions, pious murders, and despotisms is rapidly passing away. A people who have been gathered into these mountains who, under divine guidance and inspiration, are solving the greatest problems of the age; who are demonstrating the triumph of moral power over brute force; who understand that obedience should spring from love and a knowledge of correct principles alone, and who are laying a foundation of a system that will yet fill the world with the light, liberty, and glory of that heavenly Zion which has been the theme of inspired people in all ages.