Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1884-09-27
THOSE BLUE LAWS.
!. CORRESPONDENT EXPLAINS
THEIR ORIGIN.
The Tory Peters Who Hated, But
Not WiscIy--The Real Pu-
ritan Regulations.

EDS. REcoRD-UNIoN In your weekly of
the 20th instant see reprinted the yenera-
bic Blue Law hoax of the Tory Peters. 1t
seems Il pity to let It go to your readers
without comment, and am sure you will
gladly allow me space to repeat the often
made statement of the origin of this absurd
burleSque. 1t would seem, on the face of
it, as if the buriesque was so obvious that
no one could for q molnent take it for any
thing else or could imagine that the men,
whose genius for government and passion
for individual rights laid the foundations
of the American republic were capable of
the silly freaks of the Peters code. Yet in
fact no hoax of all history has proved more
! long lived, and found a more persistent
! credulty.
| ORIGIN OF THE BURLEsQUE.
The facts are simply as follows: One
! Samuel Peters, an Epscopalian clergyman,
| born and bred in Come ,ticut, but : bitter
| Tory at the time of the Revolution, got into
| so much trouble with his cuUntrymen dur
| ing the war, owing to his Tory opinions
| that he left the country in anger His
| Tory opinions were natural in am Episco-
| palian clergyman, for that church was
! very naturally, always closely attached to
! the home government; nor was 1t III the
| least To his disC,edit that he should honest
| ly cling to the Loyalist party rs many
| good men Of his time did. But Mr.. Peters
Is discredited to all time by the malicious
| and reckless hatred of America that he took
with him; perhaps no American except
! Benedict Arnold ever left his native coun-
| try with such a hatred. In England he
| wrote q book on the Connecticut colony,
| which il is hard to believe was ever in
tended for anything but take-oif,' So
! crammed is il with the
MOST ASTOUNDING FICTIoNs.
The Chicago 4dcuace says of this book:
Ills lies are So reduplicated, double
twisted snared together and piled on one
another that one is reminded by them of
| Macaulay's remark on Barere annals of
| his own times: "A man who has never
| been within the tropics may be said not to
! know what a thunderstorm is. \ man
who has never seen Niagara may be said
not to lnowwhat a cataract IS. And a man
who has not read Bareres book may be
said not to know what it is to lie In
this madly spiteful collection of lies occurs
tie Blue Law Code which you quote. 1t
seems to have struck fayorably the imagi-
nation If the Englsh--naturally disposed
at that time TO bciievethc rcvOlted CnlOniStS
a set of canting knavcs and bigOtS; and
| though the most Of Peters inventions have
Iallen ~ut of mems memories, this Blue
Law concortiOn-by virtue, perhaps, of It's
picturesque absurdity, its Western hu-
NOR sort Of daring III lying-has survived
and thriven, made its way to America, and
I ,.,,t
cans accepting and perpetuating the re-
ycugcful
LIBEL OF AN ENILED TORY
Upon his country The satisfaction that
this must be to the Rev. Samue! Peters, if
from his present abode he can look back to
gnash his teeth at the prosperity or rejoice
at the misfortunes of his detested native
| land. NAV Ga imagined The fiction was,
of course, easy to refute. The codes and
Court procedures of all the New England
colonies, and even OF most of the towns, are
on record: ,he Pilgrims and Puritans had
a lively sense of the value Of the written
| record. and also of the importance to iber-
| tV of perfect OpennesS in the transaction Of
Justice. No star-chambers or secret acts for
them: they intended that there should be
10 act of theirs that might not go down to
| all time in black and white; and their
lous exactncss, down to !he price at which
John Clark agreed to sell alG-wines in re-
turn for the construction Of a weir at town
| expense, or the troubles of John Wilson
with his ncighbor's pig. The historical So
cietes have printed the chief OF these
! records verbatim, and the curious can find,
probably,
TIL, REAL CONNECTICUT CODE
At the State or the University Library, or
| perhaps at Il law library. To make more
| Generally known the true code, and so lay
at rest forever the Peters fiction, J. Ham
mond Trumbull (the leading antiquarian
of New England and the best living author
| ity on Connecticut history published in
1871 The real code Of the Connecticut col
onv, and the imaginary one of the Rev.
Samuel Peters. with a brief account of
| Peters history, i'll a volume entitled The
True Blue Laws of Connecticut and New
Haven. and the False Blue Laws Invented
! bv the Reverend Samuel Peters | had
copy of this little volume in my possession
| soon after it was published; am sorry that
it has now sunk so far out of sight among
unused pamphlets and papers that cannot
put my hand on ii for quotation.
SAMPLE OF THEM.
The only regulation that | now recall
! land do not know whether it was from
the Connecticut code or the New Haven
CODE was one requiring parents 10 train
| their children to some useful calling, either
! industrial or intellectual, and if any
| parents were found neither giving them
| schooling nor teaching them any calling.
the authorities might remove the children
| from their parents care aud put them into
the hands of proper guardians. persons of
integrity and discretion. This is fair
| sample Of the laws. They were minute,
| and regulated the conduct Of the indi-
vidual more closely than IS now considered
| the function of government; their morality
was stern. and their belief solid in the neces
| sitv of religion in Il community; but they
| showed throughout the true instinct Of
| government they were discreet, inteli-
| gent and always passed with a distinct
| purpose and well-considered one. To
| suppose the founders of our common
wealth capable Of foolish, cranky legisla-
| ton, devoid of the sense of what govern
| ment was; to suppose the fathers and
| grandlathers of the men of 76 indifferent
| to personal libcrty-shoWs a crude idea OF
| historic cause and effect. Z. A. Freeman,
| the great constitutional historian Of Eng
| land, has spent much time in New England
studying the old codes, with the result OF a
perfect enthusiasm for the development on
this soil of the
ANCIENT ANGLO-SANoN GENIUS
For free government, long obscurcd in
England by the Norman conquest and the
resultant feudalism. Sir Henry Maine,
likewise, finds in the New England colonies
the truest type of the ancient Teutonic
ideal of free government, out of which has
sprung all governmental greatness ON earth. |
As simple historic fact, the liberality and
mildness of the New England codes from
the very first settlement of the country, |
were greater than those of the mother |
country. The early laws Of Connecticut !
and Massachusetts,. for instance, imposed |
the death penalty on twelve crimes the !
English code, as late as 1919, on 233. In !
religious liberation and allowance for indi- !
yidual right' New England was likewise /
beyond comparison in advance of the |
mother country; and, as it happens, Con- !
necticut was in this and in the matter of
slavery far more liberal than Massachu- !
sets, and but for Mr.. Peters would have !
had the reputation of so being. Many Of
the instances of certain quaint imperti- |
nence on the part of the community in /
keeping its members straight (as, for in |
stance, when a Jealous constable arrested a !
company Of respectable young people for |
staying at an evening gathering after 8
o'clock, and refusing to disperse when so
ordered, in conformity to the regulation !
that all Young lads and laSseS should be /