Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1882-05-18
OLD TIME POLITICS.

in OhiO-mtr0duced by the Puritans
Whose Descendants are Still Trying
to Make Men Moral, Religious and
Temperate by Law.
To the Editor of the Enquirer:
Sumptuary laws, defined by Web
ster as abrldging mems liberty, and as
prescribing their creature comforts,
are old as the Puritan settlement. In
Connecticut, in the absence of law, the
Puritan fathers resolved to be gov
erned by the laws of God, until such
time as they could make better ones,
and among the first of these enactments
improving on the Divine law, tradition
hath it, the Blue Law of that State en-
acted that man kissing his wife on
Sunday was liable to fine of FIVE shil-
lings. The same spirit that ordained
the sumptuary laws of the New Eng.
land States was brought to Ohio in its
first settlement-the first emigrants
being from the Nutmeg State.
Among the first laws in the Terri
tory Northwest of the River Ohio, the
eastern part Of which Is now the State
of Ohio, enacted by the Governor and
Judges within less than six months af-
ter the first settlement. was one show
ing the manner the households of the
new settlers were governed where
children failed to obey the commands
of the head Of the family. A child or
servant, SO runs section 10 of the first
law, enacted September 6, 1887, refus-
ing to obey the lawful commands of
parent or master, on complaint or con-
viction before a Justice of the Peace,
could be sent to Jail or the House Of
Correction, there to remain until he or
she girls as well as boys-shall hum.
Bile itself to the said parents or mas
ter's satisfaction. "And if any child
or servant, contrary to his bounden
duty, presume to assault or strike his
parent or master, upon complaint and
convection before two Justices Of the
Peace, the offender shall be whipped
not exceeding ten stripes The
whipping was to be done in public, by
the Sheriff, at the whipping post, on
the bare back, the stripes to be well
laid on. Had the Solons who run the
Ohio Legislature last winter known of
this law, it might have been re-enacted
and carried consolation to many fond
parent, who finds his Young American
offspring hard to control. The SEN
tence was easily carried out, for every
ourt-house yard in the State had to
be embellished with whipping-post,
pillory and stocks, for the punishment
Of men, women and children who
transgress the law.
If in the days Of Territorial Govern
ment, and under the laws enacted by
the Governor and Judges, an individ-
ual got drunk he was fined fifty cents
for the first offense, and each addi-
tional drunk double that amount. If
too poor to pay the fine and costs the
law said he should be put in the stocks
for one hour. Although this putting
in the stocks was considered among
the most disgraceful of puaishments,
yet the law was afterward SO modified
that fines and costs became as other
debts, and if not paid the guilty often
der, after the fact that he could not or
would not pay, was publicly sold as a
slave for any period not exceeding
seven years. The Ordinance of 1887,
the then Constitution Of the Territory,
was explicit in its declaration that, ex
cept for the punishment Of crime,
whereof the parties must first be duly
convicted, slavery or involuntary serv-
itude should not exist; and, to make
the selling Of men, women or children
for q term Of years for non payment of
debts fines, costs, &c, lawful, poverty
was made crime, whereof failure Of
the money being made in execution
was proof in the eye of that strange
law. The same anti slavery clause
runs in the Constitution OF Ohio, and,
with this precedent before it, the last
Legislature might have added to It's