Mexico weekly ledger., 1895-11-21
Mexico, Audrain County, Missouri, Thursday, November 81, 1e
CONNECTICUT BLUE Law
Most of Those Set Down as Fictitious
Really Existed.

In the face of the generally admit
ted bogus character of the so-called
Connecticut "blue laws" published
by the clergyman, Peters, in 1771, and
more especially in view of the expose
of their falsity in ''Trumbull's Blue
Laws, True and False" it is rather in
teresting that a New Haven gentle
man at this late date, has the courage
to point out that Peters vas not, after
all, such a monumental liar as he has
been credited with being.
On the contrary, the ancient rec
ords of the New Haven County colony
show that, while Peters may have
been given to exaggeration, there
was at the period of his observations
a good deal of foundation for what he
published.
Representative Newton of New
Haven, who Is iaMyer and Al an
~tiquarian, has been comparing the So
called ssblue lawsn with the laws OF
the colony of New Haven, and has
found statutes or regula-
tions which go to support Peters.
One of the curious and interesting
revelations is that the early New
Haveners were a quarrelsome lot.
During the first year of the court in
that colony, with a population posi-
bly, not exceeding 500 children in
cluded), 10 persons were publicly
whipped, two were put in the stocks
and two in irons, three were banished,
20 were fined, two were reprimanded
by the court and only a very few we're
acquitted.
~Enumerating the Peters blue laws,
which are supported by the colonial
records, Judge Newton notes those
providing that only church members
should be allowed to vote; that only
those sound in faith should be office
holders (Quakers and dissenters ex-
cluded); that food and lodging must
not be given any "Quaker, Adamite
or other hereto" and that any person
turning Quaker be banished.
Other blue laws covered by the
statutes of the colony were that men
stealers should suffer death; that
penalties be imposed for wearing
costly clothing; that debtors might be
sold to pay their debts; forbidding
dancing and card playing; that only
magistrates be permitted to perform
marriages, clergymen not having that
| privilege; that the magistrates might
permit marriages against the consent
of parents; imposing the death PEN
atty for adultery; that married per-
sons must live together or be i'm
prisoned or banished, and that court
ship must be by consent of relatives.
The filming of persons refusing 10
pay for the support of the ministry
was the law down to the constitution.
For those blue laws most quoted,
prohibiting riding OIL walking on the
or-fron
church, prohibiting on the Sabbath,
travel, cooking, making beds, sweep
ing the house, hair cutting, shaving,
or that any women should kiss her
child that day Or fast day, Judge
Newton cannot find any supporting
evidence in the Colonial records.
Some of the blue laws are substan-
TALLY the law in Connecticut to-day,
more than a century since Peters
published his remarkable volume in
London. Judge Newton points out
that the third blue law, that "the
Governor is amenable to the voice of
the people," is true to-day, the peo-
pie speaking through the General As
sembly.
The picking of an ear of corn in a
neighbours garden was theft-then, and
it is to-day. The law of the New
Haven colony not only punished the
person committing a theft, but made
restitution a part of the penalty.