The Tipton advertiser. [volume] (Tipton, Cedar Co., Iowa) 1856-1962, 1871-09-21

TFor the Advertiser.
Connecticut Blue Laws-The Truth
About Them.
TIproN, Sept. 10, 1871.
Mr. EDITOR Il see that in your issue
of Sept. 14th, 1871, you entertain your
readers with list of laws known as the
"Rlue Laws" of Connecticut.
1t is worth any mans time to read
those laws, that he may understand the
illusions to them so often found in the
literature of the day. But when you
gravely inform your readers that The
statutes copied below, from an ancient
volume relating to the history of the
American Colonies Were enacted by the
people of the Dominion Of New Haven"
you are giving currency (unwittingly, 1
suppose, as the article referred to was
evidently one clipped from current
newspaper literaturs,) to an historical
fiction.
The story has been repeated many
times, and has found place in SO many
reputable newspapers, that it is not
strange that many people, unacquainted
with the early history of New England,
should be deceived and regard these
law. as veritable enactments.
A brief statement of their origin will
not be uninterssting to those of your
readers who care to distinguish between
truth and fiction in history. Any one
wishing full information on the subject
10 referred to an article entitled "A long
range shot. Blackwood's Magazine on
the Blue Laws" by William L.
Kingsley, published in the New Eng
lander for April, 1871; to which article
l would acknowledge my Indebtedness
for the substance of this letter.
The Blue Laws" had their origin
from two sources. In part they were
the product of the party spirit of the
Tories against the Wings before and
during the revolutionary war; and in
part they were the fruit Of the imagina-
ton of DIR. Samuel Peters, who, at the
commencement of that war, was an
Episcopal missionary and active tory at
Hebron, Conn. New York, before the
revolutionary war, was the headquarters
in America for the partizans of the Eng
lish crown. New Haven was the nearest
to New York of the New England towns,
and the one that had been most indie
pendent and RADICAL in its opposition to
the claims OF old England. Therefore
it came to pass that the scene Of the
greater part of the witty stories origina-
ted by the tories against the wings was
naturally laid at New Haven. 1t mat
tered not that New Haven, of all the
New England Colonies, had been most
free from the strictness of which the
"Blue Laws are a caricature. Sar-
casms for which Plymouth and Massa-
chusetts furnished the occasion, were
leveled against the New Haven colo
nists. All manner Of ridiculs was
heapsd upon them by the New York
tories, with about as much regard to
truth as obtains at the present day in
the electioneering stories of PIesiden-
tial campaign, or as much as was found
in tho stories told Of one another by the
people OF the North and South at the
commencement of our late civil war.
Then, as now, if story was witty or
ridiculous, it had its run.
In those days Of party spirit, DIR.
Samuel Peters was an active loyalist in
Hebron, Conn, and made himself so
obnoxious to the liberty loving people
Of the neighborhood that they made the
place too hot for him. In 1774 he went
to England, highly exaspersted against
this country, aud especially against
Connecticut. He occupied himself in
England in reviling this country and its
people, and in ISL published i'm London
a book entitled "A general history of
Connecticut from 1t first settlement I'M
der Geo. Fenwick, Esq, to its latest
period of amity with Great Britain
including description of the country
and many curious and interesting anec-
dotes."
In this History" (?) were collected
all tho extravagant stories that had been
set afioat during tho previous fifty years
to crafty the stupidity of those among
the lower classes in New York who were
descended from the Dutch, or hatred of
the most bitter of the English loyalists.
This history is the first and only author
ity (?) for the "Blue Lava" which were
attributed to the New Haven colonists.
1t would be an easy matter to show
from the actual legislation of the colony
a. recorded in the archives of the State
and from the ascertained habits and
character of the early settlers Of New
Haven, that such laws as the "Blue
Laws" were as foreign to the spirit Of
their institutions as to our own.
The utter lack Of historical authority
Tor them, and their actual origin, have
been shown again and again by the most
competent historians in America but
calumny travels leagues while truth IL