St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-03-18
SUNDAY LAWS.
Personal, Civil and Religious Lib
erty Discussed.

To the Editor of the Globe.
In your daily issue of March 16
II. F. Phelps publishes commune
cation in which he shows his mental
darkness as to the differences be-
tween personal and civil and re-
ligious liberty in America. He says:
I'VE cannot favor a scheme that has
upon the face of it a desire to ele-
vate a religious institution by force
of civil law, for if the Sunday insti-
tuition will not stand on it's own
merits it is not worth the possession
We are interested in the
preservation of the rights Of all men,
and deny the right of the state to
invade the rights Of any one man"
Mr.. Phelps is perfectly correct in
looking upon Sunday laws as in
fringing upon personal liberty" and
SO are all laws against stealing,
murder, adultery, etc. But he is
perfectly mistaken if he wishes to
enjoy the privileges of living in a
civilized community and of claiming
full personal liberty at one and the
same time. The very foundation of all
civilized life is curtailing of per
sonal liberty as far as the rights of
others and the welfare of the COM
munity require.
To give Mr.. Phelps an idea of the
difference between personal and
civil liberty, let us take the following
simple illustration: Let us say Mr.
Php1nC would oil
alone on a solitary island of the Pa
cific ocean. There, as far as other
people are concerned, Mr.. Phelps
could enjoy all personal liberty
his heart could desire; he might
stand on his head, whistle and shout
anywhere as loud as he could and,
if he felt like it, promenade in full
daylight about his island without
even as much as an excuse of a
shirt on. Nobody would think Of
interfering. But let Mr.. Phelps come
to St Paul and try to enjoy per
sonal liberty in the same style, and
the police would soon be after him
and make it palpably plain that he
had no civil right to do such
things here, for civilized people have
right not to have their feel
ings and ideas of decency
or propriety shocked or defied On
the same principle ''the personal
liberty of every citizen who wishes
to enjoy the privileges of civilized
| society is curtailed in many ways,
and whoever does not like it is at
| liberty to emigrate to chimes where
nobody will object to the full en-
| joying of his personal liberty.
| Again, Mr.. Phelps is greatly in error
| If he imagines that it is the object of
the Sunday laws to interfere with re-
| ligious liberty or ito elevate a relig-
ious institution by force of civil law"
Does Mr.. Phelps consider it an inva-
| sion of religious liberty if a state legis-
| lature makes Washington's or Lin
coins birthday legal holiday? Quite
| likely not. Just as little is it an in
vasion Of religious liberty when for the
sake of the physical, intellectual and
| moral welfare of the community every
seventh day is declared a legal holi-
day, on which laborers may take a
we'll merited rest, give their mind a
| much needed culture by reading,
ETC., and cultiyats those virtues which
are essential for the well being of ev-
| cry individual of a civilized society.
and for the prosperity and happiness
| of the family and the community. or
| state. 1t is precisely for such reasons
OF private and general welfare that
| Sunday laws are passed, and not. as
| Mr.. Phelps seems to imagine, merely
4 Ito elevate a religious institution by
| force of civil law The keeping of a
| regular day Of rest Is founded on the
reasons of natural human necessity
| and general welfare, and antedates
not only the Christian but even the
| Mosaic legislation, as more recent re-
searches in Babylonian and Assyrian
| antiquities have revealed. For this
| reason Moses has said not merely
| Keep holy the Sabbath but RE
member to keep holy the Sabbath. {"
1t was not new institution which he
introduced, but one which at his time
| was already existing.
| As to the American Sunday laws in
| particular Joseph p. Thompson truly
says in his work on Church and
State in the United States: $50 far
| as they have been tested before the
courts they have been defended mainly
| upon two groundS-the right of the
citizen to the quiet and peaceable en-
joyment of public worship in the ex-
ercise of his religious liberty; and the
expediency, upon sanitary and moral
| grounds, of a weekly cessation from
! labor, with suitable restriction upon
| temptations to vice.
On these grounds, then, our Sunday
laws are based, and on these grounds
all law-abiding citizens have right
| to demand that the public officers who
| are sworn and paid to do their duty
give due enforcement to these laws.
JOHN GMEINER.
st. Paul, March L.