The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1859-08-07


BY the laws Of this State Mrs. Forrest
will be at liberty to marry again after
this decision, but i! Is doubtful whether
her late partner VIII be entitled to do So
There is nothing. however, to prevent him going
to another State and contracting marriage that
viii be binding. Thcs terminate the legal diff
cultes of couple who, under other circum-
stances, might have lived together contented, re-
spected and honored
The Sunday blue Laws-Popular Csnii-
dates and the Vote or the People,
From all classes in our city, and from every
part Of the country, we are gratided to receive
the most cordial proofs of appreciation at the
stand we have taken against the fanatical, tyran-
nical and inquisitorial system of Sunday laws
and Sunday observance that prevails among US.
The common sense of the people is reused
against it, and will inevitably sweep it away. 1t
is not alone the toiling classes who sorely feel
the weight of its oppression, nor is it only the
scoffer at what is good and holy that longs for
the aboliAhment of our present unconstitutional
Sunday laws and the artificial and false public
opinion that has hitherto suffered them to exist.
Right thinking men on all sides condemn them.
Generous natures of all creeds of belief abhor
them. Rational, philosophical and sincere Chris
tians censure them. Thousands upon thousands
of pious and true Christians lament the error Of
their enactment, and look hopefully forward to
the time when they can freely and frankly ex-
press their opinions on this subject without being
upbraided by their co-professiug religionists If
they would all speak out as frankly in public as
they do to us in private, vast numbers would find
that instead of being exceptions to the general
opinion they are really in accordance with it, in
condemning the present Sunday restrictions upon
every one who has not enough of the worlds
goods to make that day one of private recreation
in his own house and garden.
Our present Sunday laws are, in fact class le-
gislation of the worst kind. They weigh heavily
upon the poor while on the rich they are but as
chains of gossamer Little by little they have
been artfully and skilfhlly woven, in defiance Of
public opinion, and now they have to be broken
by an uprising Of the masses. Besides this, the
entire system is one of foreign birth, and has
nothing native to New York in it. 1t was
brought here in the invasion of the city by the
Puritanical Yankees, and by them has been fas-
tened upon US. They got it from the British
Puritans, who alone of all the Christian sects,
make of Sunday day Of sadness and gloom.
The Catholics everywhere reject it; the Calvin
lists of Switzerland have never followed it; the
German Lutherans do not believe In it; and
all the Protestant nations of Northern Europe
have ever rejected it. AS class legislation
it is doomed to be swept away, and this
must be done by the masses themselves.
In the ballot box they have the power to do it,
and they should do it. Our State and munich
-, ELECTIONS are approaching, and every man
eut1ticd Ia '-,s ---s".>---.' - .-,aLn nm
his mind to cast it only for such men as are dis
tinctly pledged in opposition to the present in
quisitorial and tyrannical Sunday laws
An appreciated correspondent reminds us Of
strong expression Of public opinion on this
subject which occurred in this city nearly forty
years ago. Sundry of the high-strung Pfesbyte-
rian divines, among whom were the late DR.. Ro-
maine, DR.. Paschal N. Strong and others of the
true New England stamp, in the summer Of 1920
or 1921, issued a call for public meeting in the
City Hall on the Sabbath question. There was
great hostility in the public mind to the
movement, and large meeting gathered.
A few sagacious, prudent and right-mind-
ed men, led by the late Robert Bogar-
dus saw the temper of the people, and
apprehending that the meeting might be con-
verted into riot, and that the black coats
might get rolled into the mud, if nothing worse,
contrived by an adroit piece of parliamentary
tactics to quash the affair at the outset. They
nominated their own chairman and secretary,
who were at once voted in by reclamation, and
then instantly proposed and carried couple of
short resolutions one declaring it inexpedient to
discuss the Sabbath question at any public meet
ing and the other adjourning the meeting sine
de-
After the adjournment an array of the black
coats gathered about Mr.. Bogardus and COM
planned bitterly Of the proceedings, to which he
replied, that if he and his friends had not taken
the course they did, and acted with prcmptness
and decision, the excitement against the minis
tiers was SO great and 80 general that mob
would have been the inevitable consequence,
and be had no doubt that the ministers who
got up the meeting and attended it would have
had their clothes torn from their backs and
would have found it difficult to escape With their
lives Many Of our old New Workers will re-
member this meeting, among whom we may
cite the following gentlemen:-Myndert Van
Schaick, William c. Rhinelander, Joseph Kenna-
chan, William Bradford, Michael Ulshoefer,
Murray Hoffman, Hiram Ketchum, William
and John Niblo, and General Robert F. Manly,
of Brooklyn. They no doubt will remember
the meeting, and some Of them perhaps took
part in the sound common sense proceedings
thereat. We have abundant reason to know
that New York is at heart to-day what it was