Logical demands of the system. Govern ment's duty is on every day. urday to be the Sabbath, or disbelieves the whole, would not the same system require that we should resort to imprisonment, banishment, the rack, and the fagot, to force men to violate their own consciences, or compel them to listen to doctrines which they abhor? When the State governments shall have yielded to these measures, it will be time enough for Congress to declare that the rattling of the mail coaches shall no longer break the silence of this despotism. It is the duty of this government to afford all—to to protect all Jew or Gentile, pagan or Christian, the protection and the advantages of our benignant institutions on Sunday as well as every day of the week. Although this government will not convert itself into an ecclesiastical tribunal, it will practice upon the maxim laid down by the founder of Christianity—that it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath day. Christian means, no: resorted to. If the Almighty has set apart the first day of the week as a time which man is bound to keep holy, and devote exclusively to his worship, would it not be more congenial to the precepts of Christians to law, should be appeal exclusively to the great Lawgiver of the universe to aid them in making men better in correcting their practices, by purifying their hearts? Government Government will protect them in their efforts. When they shall have so instructed the public mind, and awakened the consciences of individuals as to make them believe that it is a violation of God's law to carry the mail, open post-offices, or receive letters on Sunday, the evil of which they complain will cease of itself, without any exertion of the strong arm of civil. power. When man undertakes to become God's avenger, he becomes a demon. Driven by the frenzy will afford them protection. How to remedy the evil. Sacrifice of independent minds. 166 'Now among the victims of religious persecution must necessarily be found an unusual proportion of men and women more independent than the average in their thinking, and more bold than the average in utter The zealot forgets the Christianity. of a religious zeal, he loses every gentle feeling, forgets the most sacred precepts of his creed, and be- precepts of comes ferocious and unrelenting.1 The unjust oppression of Our fathers did not wait to be oppressed when the mother country asserted and exercised an uncon- the colonists. stitutional power over them. To have acquiesced in the tax of three pence upon a pound of tea, would have led the way to the most cruel exactions; they took a bold stand against the principle, and liberty and independence was the result. The petitioners have not requested Congress to suppress Sunday ing their thoughts. The Inquisition was a diabolical winnowing machine for removing from society the most flexible minds and the stoutest hearts; and among every people in which it was established for a length of time, it wrought serious damage to the national character. It ruined the fair promise of Spain, and inflicted incalculable detriment upon the fortunes of France. No nation could afford to deprive itself of such a valuable element in its political life as was furnished in the thirteenth century by the intelligent and sturdy Cathari of southern Gaul." John Fiske, in "The Beginnings of New England," pages 41, 42. 1 The truth of this statement has been proved in our own history. Neither Cotton nor Winthrop, says John Fiske, "had the temperament which persecutes. Both were men of genial disposition, sound common sense, and exquisite tact." Yet these were the men who executed the death penalty on "dissenters" and "infidels ;" and Roger Williams, in the dead of winter, was compelled to take refuge with the savages of the forests. "On the statute books," says Fiske, "there were not less than fifteen capital crimes, including such offenses as idolatry, witchcraft, blasphemy, marriage within the Levitical degrees, 'presumptuous Sabbath-breaking,' and cursing or smiting one's parents." "Colonial Laws of Massachusetts," pages 14-16. Detriment of persecution to national character. Men of genial dispoSition will persecute Capital crimes. Sabbathbreaking a Hutchinson, the historian, declares: "In the first draught of the laws by Mr. Cotton, which I have seen corrected with Mr. Winthrop's capital crime. hand, diverse other offenses were made capital; viz., profaning the Lord's day in a careless or scornful neglect or contempt thereof. ( (Numbers 15:30-36.)" "History of Massachusetts," volume i, page 390. 66 The following, which was legal authority, is an extract from the "answers of the reverend elders to certain questions propounded to them," November 13, 1644: So any sin committed with an high hand, as the gathering of sticks on the Sabbath day, may be punished with death, when a lesser punishment might serve for gathering sticks privily, and in some need." "Records of Massachusetts Bay," volume ii, page 93; Winthrop, ii, 204 et seq. Religious, not civil, reasons the cause of complaint. mails upon the ground of political expediency, but because they violate the sanctity of the first day of the week. This being the fact, the petitioners having indignantly disclaimed even the wish to unite politics and religion, may not the committee reasonably cherish the hope that they will feel reconciled to its decision in the case; especially as it is also a fact that the counter-memorials, equally respectable, oppose the interference of Congress upon the ground that it would be legislating upon a religious subject, and islation uncon- therefore unconstitutional? Countermemorials oppose interference of Congress on a religious question. Sunday leg stitutional. Resolution. Reminiscence of 18291830. obstructed. Resolved, That the committee be discharged from the further consideration of the subject.' 1 Mr. Ben: Perley Poore, an old official of the United States Senate, in his "Reminiscences" (page 101), records the following in connection with the foregoing report: "When Admiral Reeside was carrying the mails between New York and Washington, there arose a formidable organization in opposition to the Sunday mail service. The members of several religious denominations were prominent in their demonstrations, and in Philadelphia Public streets chains, secured by padlocks, were stretched across the streets on Sundays to prevent the passage of the mail coaches. The subject was taken up by politicians, and finally came before the House of Representatives, where it was referred to the Committee on Post-roads, of which Richard M. Johnson of Kentucky, was then the chairman. The Rev. Obadiah B. Brown, who had meanwhile been promoted in the Postoffice Department, wrote a report on the subject for Colonel Johnson, which gave the killer of Tecumseh' an extended reputation, and was the first step toward his election as Vice-President, a few years later.” Popularity of reports. Spirit of the times. The general favor with which these reports were received, their commendation by the newspapers, and the expressions of approval by public assemblies, show in what light religious legislation was regarded three quarters of a century ago. Nor was it, as the advocates of Sunday laws would have us believe, on account of opposition to Christianity, but exactly the opposite; for some of the most strenuous advocates of our secular system of government were Christian ministers. The power of legislating upon religion, as Bancroft says, was withheld, "not from indifference, but that the infinite spirit of eternal truth might move in its freedom and purity and power." "History of the Formation of the Constitution," book v, chapter 1. TRIBUTE TO COL. RICHARD M. JOHNSON. BY CONGRESS IN 1829 AND 1830. BY MR. ELY MOORE.1 Heroic soldier and profound statesman. Sunday Mail Reports. Colonel Johnson not only proved himself a heroic soldier, but a profound and honest statesman. He has not only won the bloodstained laurel, but the civic wreath. He not only merits our esteem and admiration for breasting the battle storm for risking his life in the deadly breach; but, also, for the firm, patriotic, and undeviating course that has marked his political life; and especially is he entitled to our love and gratitude, and to the love and gratitude of all good men,- of all who love their country,- for his able, patriotic, and luminous report on the Sunday mail question. . . . I will hazard the declaration that Colonel Johnson has done more for liberal principles, for freedom of opinion, and for pure and unadulterated democracy, than any [other] man in our country by arresting the schemes of an ambitious, irreligious priesthood. Charge him not with hostility to the principles of religion, because he opposed the wishes and thwarted the designs of the clergy rather say that he has proved himself the friend of pure religion, by guarding it against a contam- of pure inating alliance with politics. His strong and discriminating mind religion. detected and weighed the consequences that would result from such a measure. He sifted the projectors of this insidious and dangerous scheme, and resolved to meet them full in the face, and by means of reason and argument to convince the honest and silence the designing. The honest he did convince the designing he did defeat, though, strange to tell, did not silence: their obstinacy can only be equaled by their depravity. Their perseverance, however, can accomplish nothing, so long as the people prize their liberties, and can have access to the Constitution and Johnson's Reports. That man who can contemplate the misery and degradation that have ever resulted to the many from a union of the ecclesiastical and secular powers, must be a stranger to every patriotic feeling, callous to every noble impulse, and dumb to all the emotions of gratitude, not to admire and revere, honor and support, the man who had the honesty and moral heroism to risk his popularity by stemming the current of public prejudice; by exciting the bigot's wrath, and provoking the vigilant and eternal hostility of a powerful sect, whose influence is felt, and whose toils are spread, from Maine to California, 1 From speech at Masonic Hall, New York, March 13, 1833, recommending Mr. Johnson as a candidate for the Vice-Presidency, published in "Authentic Biography of Col. Richard M. Johnson," by William Emmons (Henry Mason, New York, 1833), pages 64-68. A friend Had courage to face public prejudice. Influence of Sunday. Mail Reports. Knew results of union of church and state. A student of history. and from Oregon to the Atlantic. But the same determined spirit, the same sacred love of country, that prompted Colonel Johnson to face the country's open foe on the battle-field, urged him with equal ardor to grapple with its secret enemies in the Senate chamber. He who considers the influence which those reports are calculated to exert over the destinies of this republic as trifling or of small importance, is but little acquainted with the history of the past, and consequently but ill qualified to judge of the future. Colonel Johnson had been instructed by the philosopher and faithful historian, as well as by the teachings of his own mighty mind, that "human nature is never so debased as when superstitious ignorance is armed with power." - He knew full well that whenever the ecclesiastical and secular powers were leagued together, the fountains of justice were polluted that the streams of righteousness were choked up, and that the eternal principles of truth and equity were banished the land that the people were degraded — their understandings enthralled, and all their energies crushed and exhausted. He knew full well that all the evils combined, which convulse the natural world, were not so fatal to the prosperity of a nation as religious intolerance; for even after pestilence has slain its thousands, the earthquake swallowed up its victims, and the desolating whirlwind swept the land,- yet may a new and better world spring from the desolation; but when religion grasps the sword, and superstition rears her haggard form, hope has fallen forever. Do you call for the evidence? The histories of Spain, of Italy, and of Portugal are before you. They tell you these states were powerful once. What are they now? "Infants in the cradle, after years of nonentity." Colonel Johnson had not only a regard for the political, but also for the religious, welfare of his country, when he drafted these reports. He had been instructed, by the history of the past, that in proportion as a sect becomes powerful, from whatever cause, it retrogrades in piety, and advances in corruption and ambition. He was aware that the Christian religion no longer partook of the character of its Founder, after the civil arm was wielded in its behalf. After it was taken into keeping by Constantine, that royal cut-throat that anointed parricide that baptized murderer - from that time to the present, with but few intervals, it has been wielded as a political engine, prostrating the fiberties and paralyzing the energies of the nations. We hazard but little in predicting that the Reports of the Kentucky statesman, calculated as they are to guard us from a like curse, will survive the flourish will be read and admired honored and revered by the freemen of America, when the edicts of kings and emperors, and the creeds of councils, shall have been swept from the memory of man. |