The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1862-11-13
Sunday Mail.
REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON POST q
OFFICES AND POST ROADS.


petitioners, your Committee have examined
with care, especially that made by the Hon.
Richard NJ. Johnson, on the 4th of March,
1880, which was regarded as an able expo
sition of the matter, and received very gen
orally with favor, but which, when closely
analysed, will be found s6phistical and un-
satisfactory in its reasoning and conclusion,
while much is contained in it to admire and
applaud.
We heartily assent to the great fundamen-
tai trRth, that no free Government should
ever interfere in matters Of religion, to con-
troll the religious faith and cOnsciences of
men. Our excellent Constitution provides
that Congress shall make no law respecting
an establishment of religion, or prohibiting
the free exercise thereof" and every effort
tending, however remotely, to obtain legis-
latiye interference in the establishment of
religious creeds, should be Indignantly re-
jected as stab upon religion itself, the
liberty Of conscience and the freedom of
thought.
1t does not follow, however, from what
We have said, that Congress should, by its
legislation, ignore the existence and over
ruliag providence of the Supreme Being, or
enact laws in contrayention of His known
will. No sane mind would for a moment
conceive that the trainers of our Constitu-
ton, in the very outset of our Government,
in view Of the trials aud difficulties which
awaited us, in view Of the fact that in all
probability We should soon be required
"To bstbe our infant liberties
In the baptism of our blood
intended to give any sanction to the estab-
hshment of religion by law, or to interpose
in behalf Of any religious creed, when "ia-
rokjag IKE taror and guidance Of AImighty
God, 3" they ordained and established our
fundamental law. No one would suppose
that the opening Of our sessions by solemn
inyOcatiOns, offered up by pious ministers to
Almighty God fer wisdom to direct cad
strength to support as il the faithful dis
charge of our duties, was an unconsGtU-
tonal interference in matters of religion
Neither has it been deemed unconstitutional
to appoint chaplains in the army, that they
may minister to the intellectual, moral, and
religious culture Of our troops; that they
may come round the bed of the sick or
wounded soldier, and by pointing the way, +"
wreath the haggard counteuance of death
with the smiles of JOY as the hope Of a happy
Immortality becomes the sunlight of the
soul.
The memorialists do not propose that
Congress should, by law, declare that any
day, or any portion of time, has been set
apart by the Almighty for religious exer-
cises. Congress has no such power. Its
sphere of Legitimate legislation is quite
limited, being bounded by the express grant
Of powers contained in the Constitution
They merely ask that Congress shall not by
affirmative legislation do. violence to religion
and the moral sense of the community, by
requiring the mail to be carried, opened,
or distributed and delivered or the Christian
Sabbath And is it unconstitutional for
Congress to decline the violation OF the
Sabbath dayl Such was the conclusion at
which the Committee arrived in the cele-
brated report of Mr., Johnson. Then it fol-
lows that it is unconstitutional for Congress
to decline holding sessions on the Sabbath
day. By parity of reasoning it should re-
quire all Its agents in every department of
the Government to continue their usual
routine of duties and iabors on the Sabbath.
If it be necessary to have the mail carried
and opened on the Sabbath as a matter of
public convenience, it is equally necessary
that the Judicial Courts should be kept
open on the Sabbath, the Constitution pro-
viding for a speedy trial. Why are they not
kept open. Out of respect for the Christian
Sabbath. Why are the doors of this hall
closed on the Sabbath 1t is because of
our reverence for religion, and from a de-
cent respect fer the Christian constituency
who send us here, whose moral sense would
be shocked by desecration of the day, in
devOtiug it to the usual purposes Of legis-
latou.
In the old Government such petitions as
those before Us. we're regarded as covert
attempts to obtain the recognition, by law,
of one religious dogma as pretext for an
other and another still, until some sects
should become established, and, panopled
with the power Of the State, should triumph
over its opposers and introduce all the bor-
rors of 1.-THE holy iDqujsition." We were ex-
horted to remember "thst Catalina, pro-
fessed patriot, was traitor to Rome; Ar
mold, a protested Wing, traitor to America,
and Judas, aprofessed disciple, was a traitor
to his Divine Master" While the Commit.
tee feel assured that no such object animates
the petitioners who seek this reform, the
rhetorical flourish which we have quoted
may serve to suggest, that while the Con
federate States Government in its funda-
mental law processes to Invoke the favor
aud guidance of Almighty God, it should
not be guilty of treason by trampling His
statutes under foot, and setting His author
ity at defiance,
Your Committee will not 60 into an ex-
animation as to the foundation of the obi
CATION to observe the Sabbath as a day of
rest, of worship, and for moral and religious
Improvement. Whether it be deducible
from the nature of our Constitution as es-