Before a gathering of Pilgrim descendants Sept. 12, President Gordon B. Hinckley decried a "serious unsteadiness" in America's stance "in terms of morality, ethics, principles, behavior."

President Hinckley was the keynote speaker at a banquet of the Board of Assistants of the General Society of Mayflower Descendants held at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building in Salt Lake City. It was the first time the group has met in Salt Lake City.President Hinckley is himself a member of the society, being an 11th generation descendant of Stephen Hopkins, who, with his wife and family, traveled on the Mayflower.

The prophet spoke at length of the ship's 1620 voyage and the settlement of its passengers at Plymouth Rock. He then remarked: "I look back to our forebears and then to the present and ask, `What has happened to your America?' "

Despite its military and economic strength, the nation is wavering morally, he lamented.

Referring to the special prosecutor's recent report to Congress, he said: "There is a constitutional process to which he [President Clinton] is entitled. But when all is said and done, his problems are only symptomatic of our problems as a people."

For instance, he noted, the Boy Scouts of America have been attacked because of the language in the Scout Oath referring to doing one's duty to God.

"That statement," he said. "is an acknowledgment of the Almighty. It gives civility and refinement to our actions. It is an expression of gratitude for the gracious favors that God has bestowed upon us. We are forgetting Him and indulging a secularization of our society which can only lead to further trouble."

Though once regarded as the most sacred of institutions, marriage is now cast aside by many, he observed.

He cited dismal statistics from the report of the Carnegie Task Force on Meeting the Needs of Young Children.

"It is a startling fact that 28 percent of the children born to white mothers in this nation are born to single women," he said. "That is more than one in four. Sixty-eight percent of children born to black mothers across the nation, and 80 percent in our larger cities, are born to single women. That is four out of five. The burdens imposed by these statistics are staggering. Taxes must be levied to care for the needs of such children and their mothers. The Carnegie Report continues, saying that `of teens who give birth, 46 percent will go on welfare within four years.' (That is almost one out of every two.) `Of unmarried teens who give birth, 73 percent will be on welfare within four years.' (That is almost three out of every four."

President Hinckley said every young man ought to be made to realize that in fathering a child, "he takes upon himself a responsibility that will endure as long as he lives. Every young woman must know that in giving birth to a child, she places upon herself a responsibility from which she will never be entirely free."

He remarked, "The lack of self-discipline and a sense of responsibility on the part of those who sire these children are some of the fruits of the increasing secularization of our society."

He went on to decry the 27 million abortions performed between 1972 and 1990, and that the nation has more than a million people in prison with the number constantly growing.

"Polls indicate," he said, "that a majority of Americans believe that the private lives of public officials need not be considered as a factor in their eligibility for public office. How far we have come from the time of George Washington, who stated in his First Inaugural Address, `That the foundations of our national society will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality.' "

President Hinckley continued in a similar vein, condemning gambling and state-sponsored lotteries, drug abuse, children killing children and street gang violence.

"Can we doubt that a great sickness has spread across the land as we witness the evils of pornography with all the sleaze and trash that can only lead to evil?

"Our forebears knew nothing of these things. Marriage was sacred, to be endured and made the very best of. But it was usually a very happy adventure. Children and families were regarded as a gift from God with a responsibility to nurture them and bring them up in understanding and light and truth. Work was a thing to be enthroned as the enhancement of human dignity.

"Worship, worship of God, worship of the Almighty, worship of Jesus Christ - for these people were Christians - was as fundamental to our forebears as was eating and drinking and sleeping after the tiring labors of the day."

He declared that the time has come to look back to the virtues and values that made America great, and that "there is a sickness in the land."

"But there is a remedy also, and that will begin when each of us returns back to the code of ethics, to the pattern of values, to the canons of divine truth which our honored forefathers lived by."

Even after describing all those evils, President Hinckley declared: "I am an optimist. I believe that there is a tremendous residual of goodness in the people of America. For the most part they appreciate the good, the beautiful, and those values which lead to peace, to good will, to behavior based upon personal integrity. They love this nation. They love its history. They love its traditions. They are proud to be known as those who put their trust in the Almighty, as declared on the coins they carry in their pockets. . . .

"Fathers and mothers, husbands and wives and children, living together with love and appreciation and respect for one another. This is the way it was at Plymouth. This is the way it can and must again be to keep your America strong and robust, its people happy as they look ever to the future."