The prevailing notion of government in the world at the time of our American Declaration of Independence was that political and civil rights were derived from kings; and men esteemed themselves bound by the customs and laws of antiquity. This declaration, however, makes every generation of men their own masters, architects of their own political fortunes, masters of their own liberties. It takes civil government out of the hands of kings, and so far as civil government is concerned, out of the hands of priests also, and places it in the hands of the people. The people become soverign; and those whom they elect to office are not made rulers but servants unto the people, to carry out their will according to the Constitution and the laws of the land, even as Mosiah taught the ancient Nephites in the same manner and in the same spirit. These principles of civil liberty are marching through the world.

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