Sunday Laws Made Odious by Enforcement
THE Christian Nation of July 17 says:—
“The enemies of the Sabbath and friends of the liquor traffic, are doing their utmost to make the Cincinnati Sabbath observance law odious, so as to secure its repeal. The mayor of the city has issued an order closing up all places of business and stopping all vocations that are not strictly necessary. This is an old scheme of the liquor men—a retaliatory measure—which often causes the whole law to go by default.” Well, the very object of the law is said to be to stop all vocations and business that are not strictly necessary. The petition for a National Sunday law in this respect only excepts work of “real necessity.” Then, if the law is good, how is it possible to make it odious by enforcing it? Let the reader imagine, if he can, how strictly laws against murder, manslaughter, assault and battery, and theft, would have to be enforced to be made odious. Such a thing is impossible. Such laws cannot be made odious by enforcing them. Their very virtue lies in the strictest enforcement possible. Any law that can be made odious by enforcement is a bad law, and Sunday laws everywhere are made odious always by a uniform enforcement; consequently all Sunday laws are bad laws and ought to be repealed.