“The King’s Business Requires Haste”
By K. C. RUSSELL.
We take this opportunity to urge upon all the importance of making haste in the circulation of the petition remonstrating against the Sunday bills that are now before Congress; for the present session will be a short one, as it must close by the fourth of March. There will be only about six weeks at most after the receipt of this issue of the REVIEW before our opportunities to present the petition against these present bills will be over; it will therefore require special haste to secure the signatures to these petitions and to return the petitions in time for us to use them before Congress adjourns. The following was said in substance to one of our brethren the other day, in a Western State, who was circulating the petition: “We will not sign your petition, for this concerns only the District of Columbia; but when Congress does anything to interfere with our State laws, then we will sign a petition.” A good answer to such an argument will be found in the leaflet that accompanies the petition blanks, entitled “Sunday Bills Now Before Congress,” under the sub-heading, “A District Law an Entering Wedge.” The facts are that the city of Washington is unlike all other cities in the United States in that it is not a self-governing city; that is, Congress legislates for it. With this thought in view, it will be readily seen that every citizen in this country is directly concerned in any action the government may take on a question of this character for the District of Columbia; for the national legislators are representatives of the people from the respective States from which they come, and are pledged to carry out the will of the people in harmony with the Constitution of the United States. Let it ever be remembered, therefore, that when once Congress commits itself to Sunday legislation in the District of Columbia, it then would, without doubt, take its stand for a national Sunday law. Those circulating the petition should be careful to fill in the name of the place where it is circulated, in the blank space at the head of the petition, and see that each person signing, signs both petitions, the one addressed to the House, and the one addressed to the Senate.