A Vermont Memorial Against Sunday Laws
The following memorial was communicated to the Twenty-first Congress by the citizens of Windham County, Vermont:— “To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled: “The memorial of the undersigned, in behalf of the citizens of the county of Windham and State of Vermont, respectfully represents:— “That your memorialists have observed with unfeigned concern the efforts which have been made, and, as they believe, are still being made, to procure the passage of a law of Congress, prohibiting the transportation of the mail on the first day of the week; and although your memorialists repose entire confidence in the wisdom of the national councils, yet are they impelled, by a sincere conviction of the pernicious tendency of the proposed law, to approach your honorable bodies, and respectfully submit their views to your consideration. “Your memorialists would not have deemed it their duty to come before the national legislature at this time with any expression of their sentiments, if the petitioners against Sunday mails had founded their request in motives of state expediency or public convenience; but they have remarked, with anxiety and alarm, that the proposed law is solicited on the assumed ground that the first day of the week is set apart by God for rest and religious worship. This request is a source of anxiety to your memorialists, because it presents to your honorable bodies a question of a purely religious nature; and of alarm, because the decision of that question necessarily involves a principle dangerous, as they believe, to the rights and liberties of the citizen. . . . “Your memorialists also believe that the proposed measure is obnoxious to an insurmountable objection, derived from that clause of the Constitution which prohibits Congress from passing any law respecting an establishment of religion. The cautious phraseology in which this prohibition is expressed is worthy of notice, as evincing an extreme jealousy of all governmental interference in matters of religion. . . . “Your memorialists can not discover any real force in the arguments by which the petitioners against Sunday mails have endeavored to fortify their request. The petitioners object that the present law compels the citizen to violate the sabbath. If, by this objection, they mean to affirm that there is any legal compulsion in the case, the position is evidently false, inasmuch as all contracts with the Post-office Department are purely voluntary; but if they intend a moral compulsion arising from pecuniary inducements, then, indeed, it has been well answered that their affected piety becomes the mere pretext of a mercenary speculation. . . . “Against the union of church and state all history raises its warning voice. Religion becomes corrupted and debased by the alliance, and sinks into an intolerant superstition; and civil liberty never yet found a deadlier foe than bigotry armed with the sword of temporal power. . . . “The true religion of the mild and merciful Jesus, like her Author, is meek and humble: she never aspired to earthly dominion nor sought aid from the arm of civil power; the scepter and the diadem of temporal sovereignty are as a brittle reed in her hands and a crown of thorns on her head. Relying on her own excellencies, she defies all human opposition, and spurns away the support of all human legislation, as a species of defense suited only to a false and bloody superstition.” Among the resolutions adopted by this convention were the following:— “Resolved, That all legislative enactments intended to prohibit the transportation and opening of the mail on the first day of the week are opposed to the spirit and letter of that Constitution which forbids a preference of one religious sect over another, and guarantees equal rights and privileges to all.” “Resolved, That Col. R. M. Johnson is entitled to the applause and gratitude of his countrymen for his bold and manly efforts in resisting the repeated attempts of the Christian party in politics in obtaining the passage of a law prohibiting the opening and transportation of the mail on the first day of the week, and for his able and talented reports against the prayer of the various petitions for the same.” The above excerpts are taken from “American State Papers,” pages 303–311, dealing with the Post-office Department; and while reminiscent, they are presented to illustrate the views of our early congresses on the subject of Sunday laws. Perhaps the best epitome of these views is to be found in the report of Col. R. M. Johnson, in the Sunday Mail Report of 1830, in which it was stated, among other things: “It is perhaps fortunate for our country that the proposition [demand for Sunday law] should have been made at this early period, while the spirit of the Revolution yet exists in full vigor.”