Year: 1860

IL will be observed, take wide range They
make it necessary that the Committee shoult
| restate certain elementary principles which
underlie our political fabric aud pervade oul
whole body of jurisprudence.


The founders of our government wisely ex
cluded from their plans an ecclesiastical eStab
ishment. But in doing this, they were not SC
| obtuse as to imagine that State could -four
ish without the aid of religion and morality
They not only secured to every citizen and
every sect, liberty of opinion and of worship
but they recognized christianity as the religion
of the country. In our laws relating to oaths
| to blasphemy, aud to the lords dav in the
appointment of chaplains, and in these obser
vance of days of fasting and thanksgiving We
have paid National homage to the God of the
Bible. 1t is the recorded opinion Of the Sup
RENE Court of this State, that Christianity
general Christianity, has allcays been part Of
The common Laie Of Pennsylvania This i'm
ports that We are christian people, and not q
| Mohammedan, q Pagan, or Atheistic people
1t neither supposes nor involves an Inorganic un.
ion between the civil and ecclesiastical powers
much less the concession OF special privileges to
any religious sect. But it proceeds upon the
acknowledged fact, that Christianity, has, from
the beginning been the religion of the great
mass of our people that as such they claim
the protection of the laws in the exercise OF
their religious rights aud that to deny them
this protection, would be of the essence OF
tyranny on the part the governmeut-eSpeci-
ally of government which, Ike our own, re,
cognizeS the will of the majority as its funda-
mental law.


This is one of the grounds upon which our
legislation on this subject rests. Another is
that the State needs the sustaining influence of
that morality which derives its code, It's sane.
tious and its efficiency from the Bible Repub-
lican institutions have never survived the gen
eral decay of public virtne. 1t is as essential
10 their healthfu action as the atmosphere is
to animal and vegetable life. The instinct Of
Self-prcServation, therefore, admonishes the
State TO abstain from all acts which may weak
en- the restraints of mortality. And such IS
the obvious tendency of enactments designed
to Secularize the first day of the week. For, in
respect, certainly, TO communities and nations,
true mortality is the offspring of Christianity
and Christianity cannot reach the masses OF the
people without its Sunday. Whatever conse-
quences might ensue to religion By obterating
from our statue book the modera AMI rea-
sonable laws pointed at in the petitions, the
Stale eaMno! afford 10 repeaLI them. II these
laws are repealed or essentially modified, no
rejecting person can suppose the so called re-
form will stop until the other lass which re-
cognize Christianity and its institutions have
been abrogated And this accomplished, the
food gates of vice and immortality will be
thrown wide open in every part of the Com
h. Ill IN tha 2,
to sanction this policy.


The allegation that the Sunday Laws
are uSurpation upon the personal rights Of
the citizen, is sheer assumption. That they
NAV he regarded Us burthensome BY individuals
or sects which do not accept the Christian sys-
TEN, in very true But this is an incident
which pertains to all legislation. In our country
at least, laws mast reflect the will of the ma
iority OF the people. If the working of Law
is attended with Inconvenience, it is better
that the few should Snfer than the many
But in the present case there is very little, if
any, room even for this plea. For the laws in
question are merely negative. They establish
no church, they impose no creed, they exact
no service, they leave every man free TO adopt
what religious dogmaS he chooses, or to dis
card oil faiths They require no one to attend
q place of worship, or TO contribute to the sup.
port of religious ordinances. They institute no
inquiry into The mode in which people spend
the Sabbath They simply ordain that Sun
day shall be day of rest that those who
choose shall have the opportunity Of worship
ing God without molestation, and that all Sc
culiar avocatioDs which would conflict with
these ends shall be suspended Is there any
81. l.. Il. H.,
all on the other side Let the" Sunday Laws
be repealed at the bidding of a small minority
Of our population, aud the residue, comprising
the great mass OF the people in every part OF
the Commonwealth. might with reason CON-
plain that the State, 10 depriving them Of their
peaceful Sabbath had virtually robbed them
Of their right to worship God. He would be
a positive INVASION of the rights conscience
We are not able to perceive that these rights
are infringed by enactments which simply
inhibit certain worldly employments on Sunday.


This general view of the subject comprehends
numerous subordinate questions and among
the rest, the particular question presented in
the petitions. The Legislature is asked so to
modify the Sunday Laws as 10 allow pass
enger railway cars and other public conveyan-
ees to run on Sunday Aud the application
CONES before us in the guise of an appeal for
the rights aud the comfort Of the working
classes


The working classes constitute, in every
land the mass of the population. The wise
and faithful care of their interests, is one of
the population The wise aud faithful care Of
their interests, in one of the most sacred and
responsible functions Of civil government. Ii
must be said, to the honor of Onr National and
State governments, that they have not been
unmindful of this trust Nowhere on the face
Of the globe are the relations of capital aud
labor adjusted with so generous an aspect TO.
wards the latter, as they are here. In no other
country are the multitudes of all sexes, ages
and conditions, who live by the sweat of the