Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1880-03-12
PECKsNIFFIAN LEGISLATION.


body of politicians engaged in making Pc
nal statute to restrain swearing" The
Road Law" and the Dog Law" were IA
tai enactments, and nipped in the bud the
vaulting ambition of many patriotic repre-
sentative, whose zeal and earnestness in the
cause of popular rights were lightly appreci-
ated by those who were obliged to work or
pay tax on compulsion. Our venerable
lawmakers must have overlooked those sig-
niicant facts. They should have remem-
bered that swearing is not confined to law
makers alone, but is esteemed luxury by
those who administer the law
The chewing of tobacco and swearing are
hereditary traits in the character Of our peo-
pie which repressive legislation can never
eradicate. Deprive Marylander of his quid
Of tobacco and his "damn it, sir" and you
change his whole nature-his mental equi-
poise is gone. Habit is second nature, and
If our Legislators, instead of attending to the
serious concerns Of life, spend their time in
picayune legislation, to restrain personal
rights which have no connection with the
welfare and morals of society at large, they
violate the sacred trust confdedt to them and
criminally abuse the authority vested in
them as the representatives of the people.
This piece Of eoody-goodyism in Mary
land legislature beats the most high wrought
Yankee Doodeism ever conceived by blue
nose Puritan. Are the citizens of this grand
old Commonwealth about to exchange places
with the canting hypocrites and overbearing
bigots of Massachusetts, Is this State, which
was the first to cry thus far and no far
ther," to the spirit of religious intolerance
and political persecution-that first opened
wide her protecting arms to the homeless of
every land-prepared to submit without a
murmur, without word of protest to the
introduction of the oppressive, tyrannical
blue-laws Of Massachusetts, Have we in
deed, csnie TO this, Well may We cry 0,
Tempora! o, Mores! The New England
Puritans, through their blue laws have done
more to strengthen the cause of the Devil
than our truly pious Legislature can ever hope
to counteract by their most stringent,
straight-laced enactments. AS well attempt
to restain lying by legislation as swearing,
and the measure no doubt originated with
some member who has more fanaticism
than brains, and who should at once intro
duce bill to prohibit the manufacture Of
beer as an ungodly element because it snorks
onSunday. The public is interested to know
whether this sanity member of the House of
Delegates, secured his election on individual
merit and native piety alone What county
in the State, we ask, produced this moral
prodigyi this representative of Pecksnifilan
virtue and morality, whose mind is oppres-
sed with the cares and responsibilities of his
position, whose conscience is so heavily
charged with the affairs of State that his
scope of duty and legislative powers were as
obscure and underlined as the Dutchman's
who served upon the grand jury, and told
his wife that she would sleep init der legis-
lator now" If the representative of such in
tolerence, bigotry and lanaticism, had lived
III VIZ Ah1S VI Nhdii cs tlC Il ilst, NHhIltS
would have lost his head all the same, but
Oliver Cromwell would have remained in
obscurity.
We grant that profanity is detestable
vice, but it is vice of moral not civil
nature. To take the name of God in vain is
not an offense against the State but against
God. There should be no such interference
with the inalienable rights of persons. Ma
ryland, who has always looked with scorn
and contcmpt upon every puritanical custom,
should not at this late day adopt the dogmas
and intolerance of Massachusetts as the ex-
ponent of high moral ideas, embodied in
petty, tyrannical legislation. 1t is, indeed, a
step backward in civilization. To make the
Puritans the examplar and standard of man
ners and morals is to intensity irony and ex-
haust satire. Fill our statute books with
blue laws, and raise the black banners OF
moral and political regeneration, under the
auspices and leadership OF Beccher, Triton
and Talmagc. A new era will then appear
All ungodliness, uncleanliness and profanity
will vanish before the immaculate presence
of Gods anointed A more perfect science
Of religion and morals will obtain between
men and other mems wives! Platonic af-
fiction, with its myriad train OF blessings,
will encompass Us about and society will be
well rid of the the superfuous and sacr-
legious marriage tic. The glories of the mil
lcnnium will dawn upon us and the ins;anta-
noous translation Of our sanity law makers
will he seen; their majestic ascent, like
flock of wild geese, growing DINNER and
DINNER until the last coat tail vanshcs be-.
yond the blue empyrean and their apothco.
sis among the just made perfect will be
an assured fact The picture has a serious
us we'll as ridiculous aspect
We can well imagine Purtanca or
ganizstion pretending To act in the interest
of morality and religion becoming 50 obnox-
ious 10 personal rights and liberties that out
ragged public sentiment would Indignantly
crush il under feet The rights of persons
are the foundation stone of all freedom, and
the people of Maryland can be trusted to see
that il remains just where our fathers placed
II. II was this sort Of tsmpering with ind-
vidusl rights which has fomented ANARCHY
and civil disorders in every age. II was this
that lost Charles the First his head that
inauguratcd the bloody French revolution
which sacked the Tuileries and burned the
throne al tho foot OF the Column Nandome.
II WAS this interference with individual lib
erty which gave birth 10 NihiIism in Russia,
placed mine under the feet of the Car, aud
may any day redden the sky with the con.
migration OF ST. Petersburg The arbitrary
system Of interference with the rights of per-
sons Is beginning to manifest itself ON the
part Of our own government and the acry
ordeal through which our republican inst.
tutions are TO pass is near nj hand. But a
short time since citizens were punished for
smoking cigars In the streets OF Moscow aud