p. 237 | Untitled article

Pacific Press Publishing Company · New York · August 4, 1892

FromThe American Sentinel, Vol. 7, No. 30

Disgraceful Sunday Laws.

[The Chicago Daily Globe publishes this letter, written from the common jail of Paris, Tenn., to the secretary of the National Religious Liberty Association, with the accompanying editorial comments. Later developments, have shown a still more incredible state of things in the construing of legal methods by which to find means of forcing these men to pay their fines. In the face of the example Tennessee is setting, in these cases, it is to be remembered that many of the southern States still have the chain gang, and flogging is the punishment for insubordination. How long before some seventh-day keeper will be flogged for refusing to work on the Sabbath?]

To those misguided enthusiasts who are clamorous for the rigid observance of the Sunday closing laws, both in connection with the World's Fair and otherwise, a letter written from Tennessee by victims of the very policy these people seek to enforce ought to come with peculiar force.

This letter, which speaks with more force than any comment upon the subject, is as follows:—

HENRY CO. JAIL, PARIS, Tenn., June 26, 1892,—A. F. Ballinger, Secretary National Religious Liberty Association, Chicago, Ill.—Dear Sir: We have now been in jail since June 3, and the prospects are that we will have to remain here for over two months longer. Our offense, as you understand, is that of working on our farms on Sunday. We did not employ a lawyer at the trial since it was no use to do so, as the cases of R. M. King and W. H. Parker were appealed and lost. We pleaded in our own behalf, urging that so long as we did not disturb the worship of any one (and every witness testified that he was not disturbed) we were entitled to the God-given right, after having observed the Sabbath which we believe to be the seventh day instead of the first, of working six days for the support of our families as do other citizens. The State's attorney, Mr. Lewis, thought differently and argued that since the laws of Tennessee set apart Sunday as the day to keep holy, and we were permitted to observe our Sabbath we ought to observe Sunday also. The three others convicted are W. S. Lowry, J. Moon and James Stem. Mr. Stem is over sixty years old and has spent three months in this same jail for a like offense. We did not pay our fines and costs, which amounted to about $25 each, because, first, we considered them unjust, and second, if we had paid them and returned to our

work, we would have been rearrested, and thus compelled to spend all the little property we own in paying fines. We have heard that our property is to be sold to pay fines and costs, but we understood that this could not be done, at least in the case of three of us who own no more property than the law allows. There seems to be nothing for us to do but to suffer and await a change in public sentiment. Judge Swiggart, in answer to the sheriff's protest, that we were conscientious in the matter, replied, “Let them educate their consciences by the laws of Tennessee.” My wife writes me that our two little girls cry themselves to sleep at night because “Papa doesn't come home.” Yours respectfully, J. F. DORTCH.

It will be remembered that the R. M. King referred to in the letter was the gentleman who earned considerable celebrity about a year ago by his able defense when arrested on a charge of violating the Sunday laws, and who carried his case to the United States District Court and lost. Since then the demand for the repeal of these laws has become greater and greater, and nothing but the pernicious activity of certain bigoted individuals prevents them from becoming a dead letter.

It seems absolutely incredible that in this age of enlightenment, in these free United States, men should suffer and families be plunged in sorrow because they have exercised a right of conscience guaranteed to them by the Constitution of their country.

The sooner a test case is appealed to the highest tribunal in the land for adjudication the better for the honor of Tennessee and every State ridden by bad laws passed in violation of individual liberty.