Opinion of committee.

Sabbath transportation of the mail has been carried on

ever since the

of the govern

ment.

Public convenience has justified it.

Post-offices

opening it on the Sabbath under no regulations, the committee would consider it necessary to make some legislative provision on the subject.

The general government from its establishment has pursued a system of causing the mail to be transported on the Sabbath, on the great roads leading establishment through and across the country, while the practice has been avoided on routes of less importance. The public convenience has justified these measures in the view of the government. In 1810, a law was made, directing "that every postmaster shall keep an office, in which one or more persons shall attend open on every on every day on which a mail, or bag, or other packet or parcel of letters shall arrive, by land or water, as well as on other days, at such hours as the Postmaster-General shall direct, for performing the duties Postmaster thereof; and it shall be the duty of the postmaster, at all reasonable hours, on every day of the week, to deliver on demand, any letter, paper, or packet, to the person entitled to or authorized to receive the same."

to be kept

day on which

mail arrives.

to deliver mail on every day

of the week.

Committee indorse regulation concerning Sunday mails.

Instruction

of PostmasterGeneral.

Continuance

of regulation desired.

The committee learn with pleasure that the Postmaster-General, under this law, has prescribed the following regulation:

"At post-offices where the mail arrives on Sunday, the office is to be kept open for the delivery of letters, etc., for one hour after the arrival and assorting of the mail; but in case that would interfere with the hours of public worship, then the office is to be kept open for one hour after the usual time of dissolving the meetings, for that purpose."

Presuming that the Postmaster-General will continue this regulation, and that he will, at all times, guard the post-office against improper practices, in respect to the opening the mail and the delivering of letters on the Sabbath; and considering the condition of the country, engaged in war, rendering fre

It is deemed inexpedient to

the law.

quent communication through the whole extent of it absolutely necessary, the committee deem it inexpedient, at this time, to interfere and pass any laws interfere with on the subject-matter of the petitions referred, and they, therefore, respectfully submit the following resolution.

Resolved, That, at this time, it is inexpedient to interfere and pass any laws on the subject-matter of the several petitions praying the prohibition of the transportation and opening of the mail on the Sabbath.

13TH CONGRESS ]

SUNDAY MAILS.1

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1815.

Petitions

refused.

[ 3D SESSION

Feb. 10, 1815

The House resolved itself into a Committee of the Whole, on the report of the Committee on Postoffices and Post-roads, that it is inexpedient to make any alteration in the present regulations respecting the transportation and opening the mails on the Sabbath.

Report considered.

Amendment proposed.

Resolution, unam.ended,

Mr. Farrow moved to amend the report so as to declare it expedient, instead of inexpedient, to grant the prayer of the petitioners. This motion was negatived without debate, and the committee rose and reported the resolution unamended to the House. reported to Mr. King, of Massachusetts, moved to lay the report on the table; which motion, after debate, was negatived. negatived.

House. Motion to table report,

Motion to limit report,

Mr. King then moved to add to the end of the resolution the words, "during the present war," so negatived. as to confine the resolve to the inexpediency of acting on the subject during the present war. The question on Mr. King's motion was decided in the negative.

"Annals of Congress," volume iii, page 1146.

Another

motion negatived.

Resolution adopted.

Petition refused.

Principles of Williams.

Illustration

of a commonwealth.

Religious

rights.

Sphere of government.

Mr. Stanford then moved to amend the resolution by adding thereto the following: "So far as respects the progress of the mail and the issuance of letters on the Sabbath; but that the issuing of newspapers under the proper restrictions may be prohibited ;' which motion was negatived.

The question on concurring in the resolution reported by the committee, was then decided by yeas and nays. For the report, 81; against it, 41.

So it was resolved that it is inexpedient to grant the prayer of the petitioners.'

1 In refusing to grant the petition and thus to give preference to the Sunday-keeper over the Jew and Mahometan, the Senate did no more than to carry out the principles taught by Roger Williams nearly two hundred years before. In his "Letter to the People of Providence," A. D. 1655, he defines the limitations of governmental authority in a way which shows how far he was in advance of his times:

"There goes many a ship to sea, with many hundred souls in one ship, whose weal and woe is common, and is a true picture of a commonwealth or a human combination or society. It hath fallen out sometimes that both Papists and Protestants, Jews and Turks, may be embarked in one ship; upon which supposal I affirm that all the liberty of conscience that ever I pleaded for turns upon these two hinges that none of the Papists, Protestants, Jews, or Turks be forced to come to the ship's prayers or worship, nor compelled from their particular prayers or worship, if they practise any. I further add that I never denied that, notwithstanding this liberty, the commander of this ship ought to command the ship's course, yea, and also command that justice, peace, and sobriety be kept and practised, both among the seamen and all the passengers. If any of the seamen refuse to perform their services, or passengers to pay their freight; if any refuse to help, in person or purse, toward the common charges or defense; if any refuse to obey the common laws and orders of the ship, concerning their common peace or preservation; if any shall mutiny and rise up against their commanders and officers; if any should preach or write that there ought to be no commanders or officers, because all are equal in Christ, therefore no masters, nor officers, nor laws, nor orders, nor corrections, nor punishments; I say, I never denied, but in such cases, whatever is pretended, the commander or commanders may judge, resist, compel, and punish such transgressors, according to their deserts and merits. This, if seriously and honestly minded, may, if it so please the Father of lights, let in some light to such as willingly shut not their eyes."

187

THE SPHERE OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT.

June 7, 1816.

Office of the legislator.

WRITTEN BY THOMAS JEFFERSON TO FRANCIS W. GILMER.1 MONTICELLO, June 7, 1816. DEAR SIR: Our legislators are not sufficiently apprised of the rightful limits of their power; that their true office is to declare and enforce only our natural rights and duties, and to take none of them from us. No man has a natural right to commit not be taken

1" Works of Thomas Jefferson," volume vii, page 3.

2 Blackstone, in section two of the introduction to his "Commentaries on the Laws of England," page 39 et seq., states this principle as follows: "This will of his [man's] Maker is called the law of nature. This law of nature, being coeval with mankind, and dictated by God himself, is of course superior in obligation to any other. It is binding over all the globe, in all countries, and at all times. No human laws are of any validity if contrary to this; and such of them as are valid derive all their authority, mediately or immediately, from this original.

"But in order to apply this to the particular exigencies of each individual, it is still necessary to have recourse to reason, whose office it is to discover, as was before observed, what the law of nature directs in every circumstance of life, by considering what method will tend the most effectually to our own substantial happiness.

“Those rights, then, which God and nature have established, and are therefore called natural rights, such as are life and liberty, need not the aid of human laws to be more effectually invested in every man than they are; neither do they receive any additional strength when declared by the municipal laws to be inviolable."

66

“Even an act of Parliament, made against naturall equitie as to make a man judge in his owne case, is void in itselfe, for Iura naturæ sunt immutabilia, and they are leges legum." Lord Chief Justice Hobart, page 87.

Natural rights should

away.

Laws of nature.

Superior to all other laws.

All laws derive their validity from it.

Reason its interpreter.

Natural rights ours without gov

ernmental

sanction.

Any statute against natural justice void.

No human

law contrary to the law of

Upon the foregoing statement made by Blackstone, Herbert Spencer comments as follows: "No human laws are of any validity if contrary to the law of nature; and such of them as are valid derive all their force and all their authority, mediately or immediately, from this original.' nature, valid. Thus writes Blackstone, to whom let all honor be given for having so far outseen the ideas of his time; and, indeed, we may say of our time. A good antidote, this, for those political superstitions which so widely time. prevail; a good check upon that sentiment of power-worship which still misleads us by magnifying the prerogatives of constitutional governments as it once did those of monarchs. Let men learn that a legisla

Blackstone ahead of his

Sphere of the law.

No natural rights given up by the formation of government.

The legisla

ture not om

nipotent.

Authority of the legislature

in matters of religion.

Authority of the legislature temporal only.

Erroneous

views.

Society for the protection of natural rights.

Object of government.

aggression on the equal rights of another; and this is all from which the laws ought to restrain him; every man is under the natural duty of contributing to the necessities of the society; and this is all the laws should enforce on him; and, no man having a natural right to be the judge between himself and another, it is his natural duty to submit to the umpirage of an impartial third. When the laws have declared and enforced all this, they have fulfilled their functions; and the idea is quite unfounded, that on entering into society we give up any natural right. The trial of every law by one of these texts, would lessen much the labors of our legislators, and lighten equally our municipal codes.

ture is not our God upon earth,' though by the authority they ascribe to it, and the things they expect from it, they would seem to think it is. Let them learn rather that it is an institution serving a purely temporary purpose, whose power, when not stolen, is at the best borrowed." "Social Statics," chapter 19, section 2.

In reference to the authority of the legislature in religious matters, Madison, in his "Memorial and Remonstrance," of 1785, declared: "Either, then, we must say that the will of the legislature is the only measure of their authority, and that in the plentitude of that authority they may sweep away all our fundamental rights, or that they are bound to leave this particular right untouched and sacred." See ante page 37. The truth of the theory that the power of the legislature rightfully extends "only to the bodies and goods of men," as Roger Williams used to say, has been firmly established.

1 The same political doctrine is expressed by Alexander H. Stephens : "Many writers maintain that individuals, upon entering into society, give up or surrender a portion of their natural rights. This seems to be a manifest error. In forming single societies or states, men only enter into a compact with each other —a social compact—either expressed or implied, as before stated, for their mutual protection in the enjoyment by each of all their natural rights. The chief object of all good governments, therefore, should be the protection of all the natural rights of their constituent members. . . . No person has any natural right wantonly to hurt or injure another. The object of government is to prevent and redress injuries of this sort; for, in a state of nature, without the superior restraining power of government, the strong would viciously impose upon the weak. Wrongs upon rights could not be so efficiently prevented nor so adequately redressed.