The Brookhaven ledger. (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1875-1883, 1882-08-10

Nv laWn oi tnls Htute ApfUHiDi6
merchants, shop keepers, mechanics
and all other laborers and business
men from following their accustom-
ed arocations on the Sabbath day.
They forbid fishing, hunting and
shows on that day, and as to lner-
chants and dram,sellers, they ere
required to close their doors. There
has been Q sporadic activity among
the officers at Vicksburg andon our
seacoast to enforce this Law, and
just now there is a great outcry
among certain class o. people
against the effort. Some Of the
newspapers have in hot haste de-
nounced the officers, and in one case
a gentleman who laspires to be a
leader OF public sentiment has gone
a step further and denounced the,
law. -3g -
now, the law is one thing, and its
enforcement is quite another and a
different thing. A great many good
people, who conscientiously keep the
Sabbath. believe that the law ought
to be repealed; that it is not the bu-
siness Of the Legislature to super
wise the morals of the people. 1T is
urged by them, with great force,
that morality is principle of,the
inner man, and no outward obsery-
anee of a Christian doctrine effects
anything; that men who desire to
amuse themselves or work or get
drunk are no better because they
are forced to crafty their propensi-
ties on the sly, or are restrained by
the fear of punishment; that vindic-
tive laws against what people be-
lieve to be privilege not criminal,
only fosters rebellion and hatred
and defeats the very object of their
enactment. This view is not enter
tanned by whisky-sellers only, as
some very Jealous persons seem to
think; it is an old view. 1t has its
foundation in the love of religious
liberty, and has grown to passion
in countries that have been visited
by persecution and religious fanati-
cism. Z -
But the duty of the officers ap-
pointed or selected to enforce the
criminal laws of the State is quite
another and different thing. 1t is
a first-class ass, who sets himself
up in opposition and denunciation
of these men. We say he is an ass,
and that is giving to him the bene-
fit of reasonable doubt that he is
not something worse. Crime is the
violation of the criminal laws of the
State, whether they are in them
selves criminal or made so as mat.
ter of public policy. 1t is not al,
lowable for any man or any commu-
nifty to be the judge of whether or
not particular law shall be ignor-
ed. A great many good people
think that it is no harm to gamble.
Some think that dueling is a ne
cessity and its practice the sign of
a chiyalrous gentleman. A respec-
table body, in numbers at least,
always attend prize-fight and re-
gard it as what they call the "manly
art of self defence" Bull batting
and cock fighting belong to the same
class of amusements and are openly
tolerated in all half-civilized and
semi barbarous countries. But are
we to be disturbed and corrupted by
all these, Notwithstanding their pro
hibitlon, because the devotees Of
these methods Of amusement are
CALLED by the restraints OF law9 afd
There is one way to meet this
question decently, and that is by.
addressing arguments to the Legis-
lature for it's repeal. 1t is not de-
cent Or sensible to deneunce the of
ficers Of the law; it is criminal, and
the men who do SO justly incur the
censure and contempt of useful and
law abiding citizens. They may not
know it. They may suppose from
the silence of this class and from
the applause of the ignorant or vi
cious that they are making them
selves conspieuously useful. They
are in fact only braylng under a
lions skin. s1 .~ s+''3 '''s