Action suggested. Reason therefor. Effect of Johnson's reports. now under consideration was disposed of in the last session of your body. They would, therefore, respectfully ask that, not only should the prayer of the petitioners be rejected, but that such order shall be taken on the question as will forever preclude its revival.' 'The reason for forever precluding its revival was because they held freedom in religion to be a fundamental right of man, and therefore any kind of legislation thereon was illegitimate. They believed, like Jefferson, that though one legislature could not control another, the influence of a positive stand would have a marked influence on the action of succeeding legislatures. And such it had. The reports of the Senate and House of Representatives proved to be so forceful in molding public opinion that two generations passed before the reintroduction of the question into the debates of Congress. Precedent is a power for good as well as for evil; and the prevalence of religious liberty maxims in the short history of America has ever been a powerful factor in defeating attempts at religious legislation. It is well nigh impossible to get a legislature to enact a rigid Sunday law, and so the Sundayists are compelled to ransack the musty statute-rolls of past centuries, and revive the gruesome corpses long since dead, in order to carry forward their work of prosecuting American citizens for working upon a day that is regarded by another as holy time. It seems to be difficult for us to learn that all others are entitled to the same liberty that we ourselves are; that whatever claims we make for ourselves and those who agree with us, we should extend to those who differ from us Proscription in belief and practice. "Proscription," very truly remarks the historian, John Clarke Ridpath, has no part nor lot in the modern government of the world. The stake, the gibbet, and the rack, thumbscrews, swords, and pillory, have no place among the machinery of civilization. Nature is diversified; so are human faculties, beliefs, and practices. Essential freedom is the right to differ, and that right must be sacredly respected." Hist. of the World,” ed. 1885, vol. iii, p. 1354. Old laws enforced. uncivilized. In what true freedom consists. 66 But the guarantee of this very right which was thought to be firmly imbedded in our political system is the very guarantee which the Sundayist would eliminate. Instead of allowing the natural development of individuals in society and the free contest of religion in the forum of public discussion, they would compel all to adopt their customs and force their religious views upon those whom they seem to think are in need thereof. But as all such attempts have worked in the past, so will such attempts work to-day; law will be set aside and force will be enthroned instead; the whims of man will usurp the place of right, and justice will be forgotten. 21ST CONGRESS] [2ND SESSION Jan. 31, 1831. KENTUCKY'S REMONSTRANCE. COMMUNICATED to the House of RepresenTATIVES, JAN. 31, 1831. To the Congress of the United States: The undersigned, citizens of Kentucky, by way of remonstrance, would respectfully represent: Efforts of Sunday-law That, from the public journals, they learn that numerous petitions have been presented to both advocates. houses of Congress, praying for such a modification of the laws concerning the Post-office Department as to prevent the transportation and opening of the mail on the Sabbath day. It appears that the reasons or arguments on which these petitions are founded principally resolve themselves into two: First, that the transportation and opening of the mail on the Sabbath tend to impair the moral influence of that day; and, secondly, that conscientious Christians are precluded from an equal participation in the emoluments of office. Arguments suggested. Necessity of religion and Sensible as we are of the advantage, nay, of the necessity, of cultivating morality as a means of pre- morality. serving our republican institutions in their purity, we should lament any and every act of the general government, or its functionaries, which might have a tendency to impair moral influence of any kind. But, when we consider the objects for which the post-office establishment was instituted, we are of the opinion that the effectuation of these objects, deemed important to the safety and to the pros 1 "American State Papers: Documents, legislative and executive, of the Congress of the United States," class vii, pages 261, 262. Selected and edited, under the authority of Congress, by Walter Lowrie, Secretary of the Senate, and Walter S. Franklin, Clerk of the House of Representatives. Published at Washington, 1834. Object of post-office. of the community. Necessities perity of the whole community, will justify, if they do not imperiously require, the constant employment in the Post-office Department of one individual out of many thousands, for the transmission of information necessary for the government, desired by the people, and useful to them in all their various concerns, whether political, agricultural, manufacturing, commercial, or religious. Necessity of its work. Past efficiency. To preserve and secure the peace and safety of the whole was the first great object leading to the formation of the general government. That it might be enabled, more effectually than the States separately could, to hear, see, speak, and act for the whole, with a view to ward off or repel whatsoever should menace the peace or prosperity of all or any part, numerous important powers were given by the Constitution. Among these, that of "establishing post-offices and postroads" is a most important auxiliary. It is through this channel that the government is enabled at all times to hear from without, and to speak from within, through its functionaries, whatsoever is necessary for the security of the whole. During the short existence of our federal government, insurrection, conspiracy, and war have successively invaded our land and disturbed our peace. In detecting their schemes and suppressing their progress, the importance of the operations of the Post-office Department must be acknowledged by all; and, as the approach of dangers is not arrested by the Sabbath, so neither should the vigilance of the government be intermitted for a seventh part of its time. As, by the warning voice of the watchman on the tower, the city prepares for defense, so also, by the continual cry of " All's well," in time of peace, the busy multitude within, composedly enjoy a conscious security. The officers of our government, civil and military, chosen by the people, or ap Our gov ernmental pointed by a vigilant executive, placed in foreign An unwarrantable The petitioners, holding the first day of the week as the Sabbath, to be exclusively devoted to religious position. exercises, consider that the present laws and regulations relating to the Post-office Department tend to prohibit "the free exercise of religion," because of their conscientious scruples against performing official duties on Sunday. Claiming credit as they do for their superior republican patriotism, in thus wishing to chasten the morals of the nation, how can they ask such a change of the laws, as, while it relieves themselves, places other of their fellowcitizens in precisely the same predicament from which they would escape? Will they answer that it is because a large majority of the religious professors in the United States agree as to their Sabbath? Surely not; because the constitutional prohibitions intended to secure the rights of conscience were introduced solely for the purpose of protecting the rights of minorities in matters of conscience. gregate of all the professors in all the sects forms but a small minority of the people whose interests would be affected by the change; the petitioners, it is believed, only a small portion of that minority. And, if we may judge from the number and respectability of those who have filled the offices of the department, from the highest to the lowest, many of them professors of religion, we must believe that the The ag Rights of minorities. Effect of refusal. Liberty of argument granted. number who would be excluded from office by their conscientious scruples would be astonishingly small; so small, indeed, that their numbers would be far short of that sect (whose religion, however denounced by the petitioners, is equally protected by the Constitution) who pay a sacred regard to the ancient Sabbath, the seventh, instead of the first day of the week. Not disposed to implicate the motives of the petitioners in asking the change, as they have done the motives of those who enacted and those who now prefer the existing laws, we are willing to concede to them an unconsciousness of the evils which would be the consequence of their measures. It is rather a matter of congratulation that their right to petition for a redress of even imaginary grievances is guaranteed by the same instrument which secures to all the right of conscience. It is from the same high authority that we claim the right to remonstrate against the changes they propose; changes which, besides weakening the government, by relaxing its Evils invited. Vigilance, would tend to introduce the very evils against which the first article in the amendments to the Constitution was intended to guard — the blending of religious creeds with civil polity, or, in other words, the ultimate "union of church and state." Our government knows no religion. Sabbath observance voluntary. Acting according to the spirit of the Constitucion (to its praise be it spoken), our government, as such, inquires not, and knows not, what is orthodox in matters of religion. All who are subject to its authority, as well as all who are employed in its service, are regarded equally as citizens, irrespective of their professions or creeds. And however long and generally the functionaries of our government, in their individual or corporate capacities, may have conformed to the general and laudable custom of observing the Sabbath, it has been vol |