The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1859-10-12

VIC PRIMARY vagabOnds. If Tammany does not
make better nominations than Mozart Hall,
there will be fair chance for the opposition to
carry their points
Ine sunday Car Case In PhiIadeI phAss-
Decision mt La st.
In the case Of William H. Jeandelle, charged
with committing breach of the peace in Phils-
delphia, by running railroad passenger car ON
Sunday Judge Ludlow has at length rendered
his decision, discharging the defendant, but ac-
companying it with such an exposition of the
law and with such train of reasoning as render
his decision nugatory, and rather adverse
than otherwise to the cause of civil and reli-
gious liberty A mountain was long in labor,
and ridiculous mouse is brought forth. It
would have been better if the defendant had
been held and convicted in order that the case
might be appealed and argued before Judges
who understand and appreciate the funda-
mental principles and spirit of our laws.
The Judge held that man quietly pursuing
his ordinary avocation on Sunday was not
guilty of breach of the peace at common law,
though guilty of an offence against particular
statute, for which he was liable to be fined.
The defendant was not prosecuted for the fine
under the statute, but for breach Of the peace,
which the Judge thinks he would have proba-
bly, committed, as he did on the Sunday be-
fore, if he had not been arrested too soon.
The officers did not give him time to disturb
the churches as he went along-they arrested
him prematurely, when starting. The offence
IL =. Al -. 4:
made, not in the mere fact of driving the car.
Now this is sheer humbug. Are the congrega-
tons of Philadelphia more easily disturbed or
entitled to any more immunity than the
churches Of New York, Brooklyn and Boston,
from which we find no complaints of distur-
bance from the cars which run in those cities.
In arriving at his decision, Judge Ludlow,
by way of propitiating the Pharisees, lays down
the following principles
The right to repose and quiet upon the Chords Day.
upon the basis with the law which declares
Christianity to be part of the law and would
have existed though the statutes prohibiting upon
the "LOrds day. had never been enacted
IfChrsanty is part of the law Of the State
week, is distinctive feature Of Christianity if the an
ccnt Colonial Provincial and State legislation, and the
constitution itself all based upon Christianity as
part Of the common law and distinctly recognise sun
day itself is clothed with peculiar sanctity and is in
tended by law to be day Of extraordinary quiet and
pose.
This is sop to Cerberus; but the reasoning
of the Judge is based on wrong premises, and
therefore his conclusion is false. He assumes,
not only that Christianity is the law of the
land, but that the Puritanical Sunday obser-
vance is the common law of the State The
nommon law IF .pannavIyop;a 10 thu oo,,,,,o,,
law of England, and Blackstone, the great au-
thority on the latter, declares that what is
called Sabbath-breaking is not an offence
against the common law, but is created by
statute. Nor is Christianity the law of the
land. If it were, then it would be SO laid down
in the constitution of the United States, and
the Jew and the Mahomedan would not be
placed on the same level with Christians, as
they undoubtedly are. If Christianity were
the law of the land some one form Of it would
be established as the law; for it cannot be es-
tablshed in the lump, seeing that Christians
themselves are not agreed about what Chris
tianity is, and no two sects hold exactly the
same doctrines To make Christianity the
law of the land creed must be first con-
structed, and that must be adopted, including
the observance Of Sunday in particular man
ner. Some Christians hold Sunday should be
observed like day of fasting and gloom,
others that it ought to be observed as day of
joy and recreation, while others-for instance
the Quakers and the Seventh Day Baptists-hold
that it ought not to be observed at ALL Now,
who will undertake to determine which of these
is right? Then, again, if Christianity is to be
the law of the land, is it that form of it known
as the Catholic church, the Protestant Episco-
pal, the Presbyterian, the Congregational, the
Baptist, the Methodist, or which of the numer-
Gus sccts? Who will decide which is to be the
favored religion? Not Congress, not any State
Legislature; for that would be at once an over
throw Of the broad principles of civil and re-
ligious liberty laid down in the federal consti-
tuition that "there shall be no established re-
ligion."
The only way in which the question, there
fore, can be safely and constitutionally solved
is to abolish all laws on the subject of Sunday,
and leave Christians of every denomination to
observe the day as conscience dictates, or not
to observe it at all, if they see fit, which
is undoubtedly their right. The days of
religion by compulsion, and by the
application of the rack and thumb
screw, are forever gone by, and in
this century of the Christian era it would be
deemed as absurd and cruel to coerce any man,
under pain and penalties, to a particular OBJ
servance of Sunday or to any other particular
religious observance, as it was for the tyrant
Procrustes, in the olden time, to punish men by
forcing their bodies, no matter how tall or
short, to the dimensions of bed of certain
size on which he ordered them to be placed.
If the body was too long he reduced it to the