A Memorial to the Arizona Legislature
(Presented at its recent session, at which a Sunday bill was rejected) Whereas, God, in His infinite wisdom, created man a free moral agent, not subject to the dictation of his fellow men in matters of conscience, nor to undue restraint in his civil practises; and— Whereas, The history of the world abounds in examples of coercion, whereby the moral scruples and the civil rights of worthy men have been ignored, their inalienable prerogatives trampled in the dust, and their lives and property sacrificed, in a futile attempt to control their religious convictions; and— Whereas, These multiplied failures to dominate the minds and hearts of men, and to regulate their religious worship by force, do not deter mankind from renewed appeals to the civil power, for administrative orders and legislative enactments, that would curtail the liberties of their fellows and constrain their judgment in the realms of conscience; and— Whereas, These encroachments upon the individual rights of citizens almost invariably have begun in the exaltation of the first day of the week as a day of compulsory rest, notwithstanding the conviction of many that the law of God is not subject to human amendment, and notwithstanding the undeniable right of the individual citizen, so far as the state is concerned, to choose for himself which day he will observe as a day of rest, or whether he will rest at all; now, therefore, be it— Resolved, That we, the people of Arizona, in mass meeting11assembled, do hereby express our unalterable conviction that civil and religious liberty, the treasured heritage of our fathers, ought to be maintained throughout the republic. We deplore the effort to curtail the free exercise of religious conviction by civil process, and the attempt to force upon others the conclusions of any man, or any set of men, as to which day is the Sabbath, or to regulate by civil law any religious custom or ceremonial. Resolved, That the state, in the proper exercise of the functions of government, has no right to discriminate in favor of or against any citizen or citizens, on account of his or their religious opinions or ceremonials. We therefore demand the freedom vouchsafed by the Creator, and safeguarded by the existing Constitution of the United States, and by the Constitution of the State of Arizona, to worship God according to the dictates of our own conscience, without interference by self-constituted censors, or arbitrary dictation by the civil power. We distinctly ask that the state legislature refrain from the passage of any law whose adoption would make it unlawful to transact any business on Sunday not prohibited on other days of the week; we ask that no special privileges or exemptions be granted to any class of citizens not accorded to or required of all other citizens of the state; and we ask that the representatives of our commonwealth, now in session at Phœnix, whose motives we respect, and whose high moral regard for the welfare of the entire community has been faithfully exemplified, lay wide and firmly in every act the foundations of civil and religious liberty. Resolved, That these resolutions be engrossed, and that copies of the same be presented to the state Senate and to the House of Representatives of the State of Arizona, as an enduring memorial of the sentiments of the community, without regard to creed, dogma, or superstition.