The record-union., 1891-02-09
SUNDAY OBSERVANCE.
Rev. Mr.. Thomson Says the Constitu-
ton Legalizes 1t.
An Argument in Favor of One Days
Rest in Seven for Every
Citizen.

sentatives, Rev. Edward Thomson, in
working UP Sunday law sentiment and
enthusiasm throughout the State. Mr..
Thomson preached ON the subject at the
M. q. Church South last evening, and his
discourse abounded with able arguments
In support of the aim of the association
che enforcement of Sabbath observance
by law.
He said the Sabbath Union had but a
single object, the protection of the Ameri-
can civil Sabbath, as recognized by the
fundamental law of the country, aid
such as the founders and earlier citizens
of the republic honored. The Union is
not asking, nor is it favorable to the Puri
tan Sabbath of a few centuries ago, and
which did not represent the Bible. 1t
pleaded only for a Christian Sabbath,
such as Christ made and intended, and
not fort he peculiar Sabbath of an igno-
rant people who were just out of bondage.
1t was reasonable Sabbath that the
Union demanded, of the kind that our
fathers made as one of the original
American institutions.
We hear it remarked, he said, that
when we talk of a Sunday law it is OF
something un-American-an attempt to
legislate God into the Constitution of the
country and the State. On the contrary,
that which is contended for is the preser-
vation of the Federal Constitution, as it
Is to-day, in its harmony with and recog-
milton of Sabbath observance.
When our fathers established the Con-
stitution they enacted Sunday law. In
the first article of that instrument it is
provided that the President of the United
States shall hayete days in which to con-
slider bills passed by Congress, Sundays
excepted" The question is, Did not all the
great men who sat in the convention at
which the Constitution was framed recog-
niZe the principle that one Of the inalien-
able rights Of the President was day of
rest on the Sabbath? They did, and they
guarded that right for all future time.
Some people do not understand that pre-
cedent is law, but it is so, and when we
establish precedent we establish law.
Sunday as a day of rest has been recog-
nized in all departments of the Govern
ment. General Washington went so far
as to deny himself to visitors on Sunday,
and himself and family-as have ali
Presidents since-attended church regu-
larly on that day. So in other branches
of the Government, from the earliest his
tory of the country, Sunday has always
been excepted from official transactions.
1t is a matter of history that when Sun
day legislation was proposed at an early
day session of Congress, the minority
body without quorum if their constitu-
tional right to day of rest was sought to
be denied them.
If, said the speaker, we concede to
the President the right to day of
rest, why not concede it to every man
the poor laborer, as well as the rich
and those high in authority? The
President is no better than any
any other man. In the judicial depart
ment no legal process can issue on Sun
day, neither can sessions of the United
States Courts be held on that day; al
though they may be years behind their
dockets they never sit on Sundays Even
in State courts the judges reserve their
constitutional right to themselves.
Out of twenty-six State Supreme
Court decisions in Sunday law cases,
but one Gn California; holds such a law
to be unconstitutional, yet the very
Judges who so held, themselves refuse to
hold court and work on Sunday, because
they know the Constitution recognizes
their right and duty to so refuse.
Mr.. Thomson called attention to the
fact that the bankers, the railroad Presi-
dents and certain other classes of busi-
ness men recognized their right to a day
of rest, and closed their offices on Sun
days. He then made strong appeal for
the laboring classes, and declared that
they should not be forced to wear out
their minds and bodies by being obliged
to labor more than six days in week.
He quoted, from a decision in an Ohio
Sunday law case decided by Judge Allan
G. Thurman, in which the latter declared
that mind and body would both soon
break down if the laborer were denied
his needed rest.
California, he declared, was taxed
higher than any other State in the Union
for the support of her insane, and in
creased appropriations are yearly de-
manded. And why3 Because this is a
State in which more labor is performed
and less regard paid to the Sabbath than
in any State of the Union. 1t is the duty
of the Legislature to check this alarming
increase of insanity by protecting the peo-
pie from the danger that now besets them.
1t is the duty also of every good
citizen Ito favor measures that put
men at their best to contribute to
the prosperity and welfare of. their
State and nation. The Sabbath
Union holds Sunday to be day of rest,
but in most European countries it is
ness, and is fast becoming so here. An
intelligent gentleman had told him that
in forty years. residence here he had come
to look upon Sunday in California as a
day that was cursed-one that was lead
ing the youths of the State down to de-
Struction,
A San Francisco saloon-keeper land
who is member of the Legislature had
assured him that one-third of all his
weeks business was done on Sunday. In
Cincinnati one-third of all the crimes
committed each week are traceable to
Sunday drunkenness, and statistics of all
the cities show that one-fourth of
all the liquor disposed of is sold ON Sun
day. But they did not propose to deal
with the saloons differently than other
classes of business. They would put
keeper who is religiously inclined, and
who would like to attend church on Sun
day, is prevented from doing so by his
neighbor, who keeps open on Sunday,
thus forcing the other to do so or lose his
share of the trade. The desire is to pro-
tect the one by compelling the other to
close. If the Seventh-Day Adventists
preferred to do no business on Saturday,
but to keep open on Sunday, that would
be all right-so long as he kept one day
in the week.
Mr.. Thomson then said that the head of
a great banking institution, at which q
large force of workmen received their
weekly wages, once told him that one
Saturday he selected 700 new $40 bills and
pluceu Ou each private uldrk. IneSo
were paid out to the workmen, and he
instructed his clerks on the following
Monday to keep all deposits of saloon
keepers separate from others. The result
was that in day or two 400 of these bills
had come back to the bank from the
various saloons, thus showing where
the major portion of the mems money
was spent-money that should have gone
to the shoemaker, the clothier, the
butcher, the baker and the groceryman
for the benefit and comfort of the families
of these men. They were willing the sa-
looms should run six days in the week,
but they did demand that they should
close on Sunday so as not to absorb the
money of the poor and render miserable
the lives of SO many women and children.
He held that the boys of California are