Just and Holy Principles

Definition:

Limited Government: a government whose powers are enumerated and confined by written law.

The government of the United States of America has powers that are enumerated and confined by the Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land. The government must not perform any functions or assume any powers that are not granted to it by the people who are sovereign.

What powers have we the people apportioned to our government in the Constitution? Among others, we have granted to it legislative powers such as the power to lay and collect taxes, borrow money, regulate commerce with foreign nations, coin money, establish post offices, issue patents and copyrights, declare war, raise and support armies, and to make laws necessary to carrying into excecution those powers. (Article I, Section. 8) Executive powers include the privilege to command military operations, make treaties, and appoint various federal administrators. (Article II, Section. 2) Finally, the principle power granted to the judiciary is to "try all Cases, in Law and Equity, arising under this Constitution, the Laws of the United States, and Treaties made..." (Article III, Section. 2)

What powers have we the people not granted to our government? Simply stated in Amendment X, "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." In other words, we have assigned specific powers to our government as a whole, of which certain powers are set apart for the federal government, and the remainder of those powers, unless specifically prohibited, are reserved to the states. All remaining powers not granted to the government are retained by the people themselves.

For example, the federal government has been operating the Social Security program since 1935 when signed into law by President Roosevelt. While designed with altruistic intentions to assist the elderly, widows, disabled, and retired workers, the program does not fall within the scope of the federal government's limited powers delineated by the Constitution, thus leaving this duty to the states and/or individual citizens. Families, communities, churches, non-profit organizations, and the like may be better equipped to provide needy individuals with the funds and assistance they need for retirement than a federal government in a distant city. In short, the role of the federal government is to do only that which the states cannot do for themselves; the role of the states is to do only that which the local governments cannot do for themselves; and the role of the local governments is to do only that which individual citizens cannot do for themselves.

Thomas Paine: Society in every state is a blessing, but government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one; for when we suffer or are exposed to the same miseries by a government, which we might expect in a country without government, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer. (Paine, Thomas Common Sense, 1776)

James Madison: The great desideratum in Government is, so to modify the sovereignty as that it may be sufficiently neutral between different parts of the Society to controul one part from invading the rights of another, and at the same time sufficiently controuled itself, from setting up an interest adverse to that of the entire Society. (Madison, James letter to Thomas Jefferson, October 24, 1787)

James Madison: In the first place, it is to be remembered, that the general government is not to be charged with the whole power of making and administering laws: its jurisdiction is limited to certain enumerated objects, which concern all the members of the republic, but which are not to be attained by the separate provisions of any. (Madison, James Federalist No. 14; November 30, 1787)

The Brethren:

Dallin H. Oaks: Citizens should also be practitioners of civic virtue in their conduct toward government. They should be ever willing to fulfill the duties of citizenship. This includes compulsory duties like military service and the numerous voluntary actions they must take if they are to preserve the principle of limited government through citizen self-reliance. For example, since U.S. citizens value the right of trial by jury, they must be willing to serve on juries, even those involving unsavory subject matter. Citizens who favor morality cannot leave the enforcement of moral laws to jurors who oppose them. (Dallin H. Oaks, “The Divinely Inspired Constitution,” Ensign, Feb. 1992, 68)

Rex E. Lee: The central feature of the American Constitution is that with only one exception, its provisions are confined to limiting the powers of government. The single exception is the Thirteenth Amendment, which prohibits slavery and involuntary servitude and therefore necessarily governs relationships between private, nongovernmental people and entities. With that single exception, the Constitution leaves untouched those vast bodies of other law that regulate the rights and obligations that individuals, groups, and institutions owe to and enjoy from each other. I suspect that the great majority of Americans don't know that. It follows that when we speak of our constitutional rights, we are necessarily speaking of rights that we enjoy vis-a-vis government, either national, state, or local. The Constitution is silent with respect to rights that we might enjoy vis-a-vis our employer, our neighbor, or any other nongovernmental person or entity who infringes on our interests in any way other than the imposition of slavery or involuntary servitude, neither of which has been a terribly pressing issue over the past century and a quarter. ("The Constitution and the Restoration," Lee, Rex E., January 15, 1991)

Ezra Taft Benson: The powers the people granted to the three branches of government were specifically limited. The Founding Fathers well understood human nature and its tendency to exercise unrighteous dominion when given authority. A Constitution was therefore designed to limit government to certain enumerated functions, beyond which was tyranny. (Ezra Taft Benson, “The Constitution—A Glorious Standard,” Ensign, Sept. 1987))

Spencer W. Kimball: Out of years of turmoil and tragedy, wars and riots, assassinations and wrongdoings in high places, Americans have recaptured the Spirit of 1776. We again had visions of our revolutionary founders and our immigrant ancestors. Great and consoling is the vision of free men and free women enjoying limited government and unlimited opportunity. (Spencer W. Kimball, “A Report and a Challenge,” Ensign, Nov. 1976, 4)

Neal A. Maxwell: A little experience with federal and state bureaucracies has taught me that such bureaucracies are inhabited by basically good civil servants, onto whom voters have pushed too much power for their good or ours. What we unwittingly court in such circumstances is learning again, painfully, that "almost all" men can't handle authority without abusing it. Whether or not the American people, regardless of party, can tame their governments is yet to be determined, but sunset laws alone will not do it. If citizen appetites, once aroused, merely look to a new agency to do what a disestablished agency once did, it won't be enough. Addicts can always find new pushers. ("Insights from My Life," Maxwell, Neal A., October 26, 1976)

Neal A. Maxwell: We rightfully worry about taming our technology so that it serves us, rather than dominates us. But we cannot tame our technology without taming ourselves. We are rightfully concerned about taming our cities so that they are habitable and desirable to live in. But we cannot tame our cities without taming ourselves. We are rightfully worried about the swelling bureaucracies of government, which need to respond to us—not to regiment us. But we cannot tame those bureaucracies unless we first tame our appetites, for a bloated bureaucracy is merely a manifestation of citizen appetites, demands, and the subsequent need for external controls. (Neal A. Maxwell, “Eternalism vs. Secularism,” Ensign, Oct. 1974, 69 )

References:

→  Rex E. Lee, "The Constitution and the Restoration," January 15, 1991

→  Ezra T. Benson, "The Constitution--A Heavenly Banner," Sep. 1986