Sunday Law Effort in Hamburg

International Religious Liberty Association · Chicago · Jun 21, 1900

FromThe American Sentinel, The Sentinel of Liberty, Vol. 15, No. 24.

Sunday Law Effort in Hamburg

A revivalist has just closed a series of meetings in Hamburg, Ia., with one result that a strong effort is being made to secure from the city council enactment of a Sunday closing ordinance. Of course like all other Sunday laws this one if secured will be “purely civil.” It matters not that such laws enforce the observance of a religious institution, and that they are enacted in obedience to the demand of religious sentiment, they are themselves “civil;” for don’t you see, religious legislation in this country is unconstitutional, and it would never do to admit that Sunday laws are themselves violative of constitutional law? This is the reason and the only reason the “civil” dodge was ever invented.