The Ottawa free trader., 1877-02-10


among the arts ana sciences.
The Fictitious Blue Laws and their Origln.--
How Other of the Colonies Dealt
with Offenders.
From the New York journal of Commerce.
The ridiculous fictions which have from
time to time been published under the title
OF Blut Laws of Connecticut have had such
wide circulation that it has long been be-
lieved by men who ought to have known bet
ter that these absurd statutes, forbidding men
to kiss their wives make beds, cut hair, or
shave on Sunday, and making 1t a crime for
woman to kiss her child on Sunday or
fasl day, were really laws of the Puritan col.
ony. DR.. Hammond Trumbull, whose recog-
niZed authority as historian and antigua
rian commands respect to all which he pub.
lishes has at length gone to the very bottom
of these forged laws, exposing their origin,
giving the genuine laws OF the Connecticut
colonies, and in so dong has made one of
the most curious, readable and important
books of the time. This book is entitled
"The True Blue Laws of Connecticut and
New Haven and the False Blue Laws invent
ed by the Rev. Samuel Peters," DR.. Trum-
bull puts his pen like dagger into score
of modern writers, churchmen, lawyers and
historians in England and America. He ex-
poses their carelessness-to call il by mild
phrase-in accepting as genuine these ridicu-
lous forgeries. He shows that they were in
ventionS of the well.known Samuel Peters,
whose history" WAS general melange Of
talsehood, and who was himself SO given to
falsehood that 1t was apparently more diff
cult for him to tell truth than untruth, and
that later writers have been ineXcusably at
fault in citing them from Peters without 60
Ing to the genuine laws of Connecticut for
correct inform alton. These genuine laws are
given at full length and while they are suffi.
cienlly blue, they contain none of the nom
sense of the Peters edition, and are shown to
be no more severe than the laws OF England
at the same period, but in many respects
more mild ana humane. The mass of histori-
cal information condensed on this subject ls
wonderful, and will give to the reader a new
idea of the existing tyranny IN England at
that period.
But DR.. Trumbull does not rest content
with his complete defense OF Connecticut.
He gives the truth about the severity of her
code, and then quietly, with Il cool enjoyment
which those WHO are hurt will share with
him, proceeds to show what other colonies
did IN those times. Thus, he quotes Judge
Duly's valuable and interesting paper" on
the judicial organization of New York in
which the learned Judge says Of the New
Amsterdam tribunals Their mode of pro.
ceeding was infinitely more effective than the
technical and artificial system introduced by
their English successors" and Mr.. James w.
Gerard's remark: "The Dutch here were a
humane as well as just people" These quo
tatons are made, without note or comment,
as the introduction to series of citations
from New Amsterdam records like these ::
~ ,1vtn pI,n ,.,,fb
an assault, was subjected to torture, but he
besen, charged with theft, put to the torture,
confessed, sentenced to be whipped with rods
and bauished. Dec. 6, 1G63-Fraus Jansen,
charged with theft, once tortured and twice
whipped without eliciting additional Infor-
nation. June II, 1660-A soldier, sentenced
TO be tied in a sack aud cast into the river
and drowned until dead. April Is, 1865
Nicholas Albertsen, tor deserting his ship
and betrothed, sentenced TO have his head
shaved his ears bored, be ffogged, and work
two years with the cOmpany's negroes. And
a great many other curious and cruel punish
ments.
Quoting statements of historians that New
York was the refuge OF the oppressed who
sought freedom to worship God" DR.. Trum.
bull cites abundant proof Of New York per
secuton of Lutherans, Baptists and Quakers.
Unauthorized coDventicles were forbidden,
unlicensed preachers fined, Lutherans forbid
den the public exercise OF their religion, Bap-
lists fined and banished, Quakers excluded,
or, if found, imprisoned and persons fined
for harboring them. Virginia, where the
Church of England was in power, enacted
and enforced all sorts of intolerant laws
MARYLAND was less ntoleIant Massachusetts,
however, was the most lntolerant of all the
colonies; and, to close the volume, the editor
shows that the Blue Laws of England were
ls tyrannous as those of any of her colonies.
This valuable book comes at time when
its historical truths are of great importance,
and we have given our notice Of it this promi-
nence because the moral OF its revelations is
that historical truth which we have so often
insisted upon: The settlers of New England
did no, come TO this country to establish lib
erty, religious or political Neither did the
settlers of New York or Virginia The prin-
ciples of free government which We now
prize so highly are wholly contrary to the
spirit of the original cOlonlsts. 1t Is enough
Ia make q Massachusetts Puritan restless in
his grave TO hear men, over his dust, twad-
ding in modern rhetoric about the liberty
Iha, came over in the Mayilower. The Purl-
tan abhorred liberty in the modern sense Of
One of the great dangers of the present
age is that we Shall relapse into the lntoler-
ance OF the early days in America. Large
majori,ies and long leases ot power given 10
one political party tend TO that sort of intol-
erance. Partisans grow impatient OF the ex-
preston of opinions contrary TO then views,
and when backed by strong power have little
hesitation in using it to suppress discussion
and dissent II is good time now 10 see a.
picture of the colonial tyranny, drawn by the
hand of an Impartial aud trustworthy his
torian
All Livingston county was fearfully exer
cised last week over stories that a general
bulldosing and massacre OF the negroes of
Pontiac was in progress on the part of the
whites, and that dozen at least had been
chopped up with cleavers in a single evening