WERE THE BLUE LAWS A FORGERY?
A CORRESPONDENT writes us from Milton, Massachusetts, under date of August 7, as follows:— “The Famed Blue Laws,” in your issue of July 31, are thus regarded by candid historians: “The code commonly called the Blue Laws of Connecticut, is now generally considered to have been a forgery by the Rev. Samuel Peters. The early statutes were not peculiarly severe or intolerant.”—Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. vi, page 258. As you claim to be set forth the defense of the truth, you will, after verifying this quotation, publish it in your next issue. Sam’l. A. Peters was a Tory who fled to Eng. See “McClintock and Strong’s Cyc.,” vol. 8, page 36. DANIEL STEELE, a son of Ct. born parents. The quotation from the “Britannica,” is correctly quoted, but it is found on page 289, instead of page 258. This, however, is what a better authority on this topic has to say:— “Blue Laws,” the name given to the first collection of laws framed for the government of the Connecticut colony. They were published in collected form, in 1650, and issued in blue paper covers. From this fact they derived the name “Blue Laws.” They contained rigid enactments against every social vice, as well as for social regulations, and revealed the sternness of the Puritan character and morals. Copies of these laws found their way to England, where they first received the name of “Blue Laws.” “To ridicule the Puritans of New England, a series of ridiculous enactments, falsely purporting to be a selection from the ‘Blue laws,’ were promulgated, and gained general belief.”—Cyclopedia of United States History, by Benson J. Lossing, LL.D. It will be seen that Lossing places the publication of the “Blue Laws” in 1650, but Peters, who published what was evidently a perversion of the same, was not born till 1735. Our correspondent is partly right and partly wrong. After all, one State has but little to boast over another.