The record-union., 1897-01-10
A Civil Sabbath Law-Why ?


of good faith.-Eds.
A Civil Sabbath Law-Why
He who clothes humanity with certain
| mali ienable rights and fills it with in
eradicable needs, laid at the foundation
of orderly human life two great under
girders-marriage and the Sabbath.
They are a provision for man generic,
and therefore are irrepealable. The
| founders of our national plan, which is
the admiration and hope, or the wonder
and terror of the nations, placed the
Christian Sabbath as main support
| ing pillar of civil liberty.
| Every eminent jurist in America to
whose official attention the matter has
been brought has sustained the civil
| Sabbath law Many of them devoutly
reverence the day as divine provision
for human veal; all, not excepting even
Chancellor Kent, justify the recognition
of one and the same day, to be taken
apart from servile toll, for the benefit
of health, home life, domestic and social
| amenities, mental refreshment, moral
culture, and the harmonization of in
dustries. AS q matter of law it must
be treated as a police or prudential
| reg uIdLlOU. w Illldl II IiluSl nc Tic ScilIlc
day, or all industrial arrangements
would be confused and the purpose of
the day frustrated.
| Thus Judge Thurman, the eminent
statesman and jurist of Ohio, recently
deceased, in sustaining the Sunday law
of Ohio, uses clear and strong language:
I'VE have no union of church and State,
nor has our Government ever been vest
| ed with authority to enforce any religi-
| GUS observance simply because it is
religious. OF course it is no objection,
but, on the contrary, is a high recon-
mendation to a legislative enactment
based on justice or public policy, that II
| is found to coincide with the precepts of
a pure religion, but the fact is neverthe-
| less true that the power to make the
law rests in the legislative control over
| things temporal, and not over Things
spiritual. We are, then, to re-
gard the statute under consideration as
a mere municipal or police regulation,
whose validity is neither strengthened
nor weakened by the fact that the day
Of rest 1t enjoys is the Sabbath day.
| Wisdom requires that men should re-
| frain from labor at least one day in
| seven, and the advantages of
having the day of rest fixed,
and SO fixed, as to happen at
regularly recurring intervals, are too
| obvious to be overlooked. 1t was with
in the constitutional competency of the
General Assembly to require this cessa-
| ton Of labor and to name the day of
rest. 1t did SO by the Act referred to.
and, in accordance with the feeling of
majority Of the people, the Christian
! Sabbath was very properly selected"
Bloom VS.. Richards, I'd o. S. 391, .392
In the case of Specht VS. the Common
wealth, 3 Barr. 312, is a coincident judg-
nent in which the court held: "All
agree that to the we'll being of society
periods of rest are absolutely necessary.
To be productive of the required advan-
| tage these periods must recur at stated
| intervals, so that the mass of which the
| community is composed may enjoy a
| respite from labor at the same time
] They may be established by common
consent, or, as conceded, the legislative
power of the State may, without i'm
! propriety Interfere to fix the time Of
| their stated return and enforce obe-
dience TO the direction. When this hap
! pens some one DAY must be selected
In a Christian community
! where very large majority of the peo-
! pie celebrate the first day of the week
| as their chosen period of rest from la
| Dor, 1t is not surprising that that day
should have received the legislative
sanction"
Judge N. B. Hagans says of the sun
day-sabbath law: 1T is a question
| based upon the needs of society and
lies a the foundation of the State. 1T
is essentially a civil regulation made
/ for the government of man as a member
| of society. 1t is not, therefore, irrele-
want to declare that the day set apart
as day Of rest from secular employ
| ment is the American Sabbath. These
| laws are founded on the reeds of men
| for day of rest, and are therefore Jus
titled by the public policy of the State.
| Nor has their constitutionality ever
| been questioned by any court anywhere.
| as remember, except early in the his.
| tory of California; but since, in four
cases. the law In that State has been
uniformally upheld and approved It
has always and everywhere heen held
that such laws are within the constitu-
| tional powers of the legislature
/ give these few cases as samples, to
| which many scores might easily be add
ed, to disabuse any minds of the notion
| that a civil Sabbath law is intended to
compel men to be religious. They are
also sufficient to eliminate the thought
Of any attempt to unite church and
State, and 10 meet and answer the con-
tention of the Saturday Sabbath people
who contend that Saturday is the prime
| val Sabbath, therefore it is wrong to
| make Sunday the exceptional day of
| rest. II the assumption were true
| which 1t Is not, the fact would not mili-
tate against a civil Sunday law The
plea nisconceives the ground reason of
the statute in question.
A rest day placed by law beyond the
lexactions Of greed and the expressions
of power, has an economic value which
lis happily expressed by Lord Macaulay