The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1889-02-02
SAM HOUSTON IDEAS.
The Father of Texas on Prohibition
and Sumptuary Laws

1 Au0 x8CUeT OF x6X89 on xIO0AUAtAVA
and Sumptuary Laws.
In the Dallas Herald of October
20, 1882, appeared the following
which is of much interest in these
times:
SIN 1853 delegation of minis.
ters, having knowledge that Sena.
tor Houston had joined the Sons Of
Temperance, called upon him in
Eastern Texas, and requested him
to bestow his influence and aid to
secure the enactment of a Sunday
and Prohibition law. The follow
ing is his reply, as taken from the
biography of this great man, now
in press, and to be issued in a few
days by Judge VIM. Lewis:
II agree with you that any un-
necessary amusement that is calcu-
lated to disturb and annoy persons
engaged in religious worship on the
Christian Sabbath is wrong and
censurable, such as horse racing,
gambling of all devices and indulg-
ing in social glass in public.
"You request me to use my infiu-
ence and exertions, such as l pos
sess, to induce the Legislature to en-
act law to effect the suppression
of the same. I understand by that
you desire the law-making power
to declare it penal offense for
persons to perform certain acts on
a particular day.
''In reply, / hold and maintain
that it is far better to endure and
suffer from the ills of even great
evil than to violate, in the least, a
vital principle of civil and religious
liberty.
"When tyrants ask you to yield
one jot of your liberty, and you
consent thereto, it is the first link
forged in the chain that will event
ually hold you in bondage.
"The Irish, that noble race so pro-
life of brave warriors, grand states
men and brilliant orators, whose
deeds of bravery have immortalized
every battlefield over which waved
the British flag, permitted the Eng
lish lords to be centuries in forging
their fetters inch by inch, here a
little and there a little, until to-day
they are in helpless bondage.
"The time to resist the encroach-
nlents of tyranny is at the incip-
lent stage thereof. The constitution
of the United States says: Con
gress shall make no law respecting
the establishment of religion, or
prohibiting the free use thereof.
Our State constitution says: Min
listers of the gospel being by their
profession dedicated to God and
the care of souls, ought not to be
diverted from the great duties of
their functions; therefore no minis
ter of the gospel or priest Of any
denomination whatever shall be ell
igible to the legislature
"The clause in our State consti-
tuition just quoted, DISTINGUISHING
clergymen, l think is an abridge-
ment of religious liberty. Had l
been member of the constitutional
convention would not have given
it my support. 1t violates the very
principles intended to protect, mas
much as it recognizes the right to
control the free enjoyment of re-
ligious belief by law. The men,
many of them, that framed and
voted for it were smarting from the
effects of the tyrannical act of the
Mexican priesthood, which was the
cause, have no doubt, thatinspired
the enactment.
II wish to be understood in my
remarks that l have no.prejudice
against the persons embracing the
Catholic faith that would debar me
from according to them the same
rights due to any other denomina-
ton of Christians or any other re-
ligious creed.
"History teaches US that men
composing all denominations of re-
ligious faith, when clothed with &C.
clesiastical and temporal power
combined, have been tyrants.
"Now, any law made by the law
making power of the State, intended
to regulate PERSONS religion or
civil conduct on Sunday is in yio-
lation of the spirit of the constitu-
ton of the United States, If not the
letter. That clause was placed
there by wise men; by men who
had been careful students of his
tory. They determined that their
beloved country should not be the
bloody battle-ground of religious
enthusiasts. They were not ignor-
ant of the early colonial history
history that disclosed the fact that
the New England colonists enacted
and enforced laws compelling per-
sons to observe and subscribe to q
particular religious faith. Laws
were enacted regulating all persons
conduct on Sunday, which were so
severe that people dared not prepare
food for nourishment. They were
compelled to prepare the traditional