Petitions called upon Congress to settle relig. ious differences. Principle wrong. Now, some denominations considered one day the most sacred, and some looked to another, and these petitions for the repeal of the law of 1825 did, in fact, call upon Congress to settle what was the law of God. The committee had framed their report upon principles of policy and expediency. It was but the first step taken, that they were to legislate upon religious grounds, and it made no sort of difference which was the day asked to be set apart, which day was to be considered sacred, whether it was the first or the seventh, the principle was wrong. It was upon this ground that the committee went in making their report." Register of Debates in Congress," volume v, pages 42, 43. 66 Representative passages from Senator Johnson's report are as follows: "Extensive religious combinations, to effect a political object, are, in the opinion of the committee, alRepresent ways dangerous. This first effort of the kind calls for the establishment of a principle which, in the opinion of the committee, would lay the foundation for dangerous innovations upon the spirit of the Constitution and upon the religious rights of the citizens. . . ative passages from the Sunday Mail Report. "Congress has never legislated upon the subject. It rests, as it ever has done, in the legal discretion of the Postmaster-General, under the repeated refusals of Congress to discontinue the Sabbath mails. . . 66 While the mail is transported on Saturday, the Jew and the Sabbatarian may abstain from any agency in carrying it from conscientious scruples. While it is transported on the first day of the week, any other class may abstain, from the same religious scruples. The obligation of the government is the same to both these classes; and the committee can discern no principle on which the claims of one should be respected more than those of the other, unless it should be admitted that the consciences of the minority are less sacred than those of the majority." S. Docs. 2d sess., 20th Cong., Doc. 46; also "Register of Debates," volume v, Appendix, page 24. Report settled ques many years. Congress determined to abide by Sunday bills re The adoption of Mr. Johnson's report settled the question of Sunday legislation by Congress for many tion for years. Its revival calls forth this memorial asking that Congress will not reverse its decision made in 1830. Second. In addition to the fact that after a discussion lasting twenty years, Congress determined to abide by its constitutional restrictions touching Sun- Constitution. day laws, we offer another objection to the bills now before it. Leaving out the historic fact that Sunday laws have always been avowedly religious, we call attention to the religious elements and principles contained in ligious. the bills now before you. They create crime by assuming that secular labor and ordinary worldly affairs become criminal at 12 o'clock on Saturday night and cease to be criminal twenty-four hours later; they assume that the specific twenty-four hours known as the "first day" of the week may not be devoted to ordinary affairs, because of the sinfulness and immorality resulting from such use of those specific hours. The fact that religious leaders are the main promoters of leaders chief Sunday legislation shows that religious convictions are at the basis of Sunday laws, and that religious ends are sought through their enforcement. The terms used, although somewhat modified in modern times, denote that the proposed laws spring from religious conceptions. There can be no distinction between "secular " and "sacred," "worldly" and "unworldly," except on religious grounds. There is no reason, either in logic or in the nature of our civil institutions, why the first day of the week should be legislated into a day of idleness any more than the fourth day. Through all history cessation from "worldly pursuits" on either the seventh or the first day of the week has been considered a form of religious duty. Religious promoters. Religious terms used. No reason for making Sunday a idleness. day of Crime not determined by day of week. Suggestion how to protect employed persons. Note accompanying memorial. Seventh day Baptists took prominent part in Revolutionary War. Actions and transactions intrinsically right, which promote prosperity, good order, and righteousness, can not be changed into crimes at a given moment - by the clock and purged from criminality "by act of Parliament" twenty-four hours later. If there be need of protecting employed persons from abuse or overwork, that need will be met in full by some law like the following: "Be it enacted, That every employed person shall be entitled to one day of rest each week. The claiming of this right shall not prejudice, injure, nor interfere with any engagement, position, employment, or remuneration as between employed persons and those by whom they are employed." In view of the foregoing and many similar reasons, your memorialists respectfully urge Congress not to enact any of the Sunday-law bills now before your honorable body. In behalf of the Seventh-day Baptists of the United States, by the American Sabbath Tract Society, Plainfield, New Jersey.1 STEPHEN BABCOCK, A. M., President, 48 Livingston Ave., Yonkers, New York. ABRAM HERBERT LEWIS, D. D., LL. D., Cor. Sec., 633 West Seventh St., Plainfield, New Jersey. February, 1908. 1The following note, containing items of interest relating to the connection Seventh-day Baptists had with national affairs in colonial and Revolutionary times, accompanied the memorial, and was likewise published with it in the "Congressional Record" of March 3, 1908, page 2892: "Some of the facts referred to in the opening of the foregoing memorial are these: Through the Hon. Samuel Ward and others, Seventh-day Baptists took a prominent part in the struggle by which the nation was brought into existence. Being then governor of the colony of Rhode Island, Mr. Ward was the first of the colonial governors who refused to enforce the stamp act of 1765. His pub lished letters - Westerly, Rhode Island, December 31, 1773; and “The Assembly of Rhode Island led in the movement for a colonial navy. On the third of October, 1775, Mr. Ward presented the recommendations of the Rhode Island Assembly, and on December 11 of that year Congress acted upon those recommendations, and the first thirteen ships were ordered, these being the nucleus of the navy of the United States. Mr. Ward's last letter was dated at Philadelphia, March 6, 1776. It was a high type of Christian patriotism, and his relations with Benjamin Franklin are shown in the closing sentence: Doctor Franklin does me the favor to take charge of this letter.' March 15, he was compelled to leave his place while Congress was in session. Virulent smallpox developed, from which he died March 26, 1776. The Continental Congress, the General Assembly of Pennsylvania, and the mayor and councilmen of the city of Philadelphia attended the funeral officially, and the members of Congress wore mourning crape for a month in memory of Mr. Ward. The published correspondence of John Adams describes Mr. Ward's funeral, and speaks in high terms of his ability and influence. Reported appointment of Washing ton as commander. Nucleus of United States navy. Friend of Franklin. Commended by John Adams. IN PENNSYLVANIA. "The German Seventh-day Baptists of Pennsylvania were also prominent supporters of the colonial government through their representative at Ephrata, Pennsylvania. After the battle of Brandywine, September 11, 1777, the public buildings of the Seventh-day Baptists and their private homes were thrown open as hospitals, in which German seventh-day Baptists like. wise aided in Revolution. Jan. 27, 1910. bor unlawful. JOHNSTON DISTRICT SUNDAY BILL. AS IT PASSED THE SENATE JANUARY 27, 1910. A BILL FOR THE PROPER OBSERVANCE OF SUNDAY AS A Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That it shall be unlawful for any person or corporation in the District of Columbia on the first day of the week, commonly called Sunday, to labor at any Secular la trade or secular calling, or to employ or cause to be employed his apprentice or servant in any labor or business, except in household work or other work of necessity or charity, and except also newspaper publishers and their employees, bootblacks and porters, and except also public-service corporations and their employees, in the necessary supplying of service to the Exceptions. Declara tion of Independence translated and published by them. Similar to Maryland Sunday law of 1723. not less than five hundred sick and wounded soldiers became the guests of the Seventh-day Baptists during the dreary winter of 1777-78. Typhus' became epidemic, and many soldiers died, together with a number of Seventh-day Baptist women who acted as nurses. These soldiers were buried in the Seventh-day Baptists' cemetery, where a fitting monument stands above their dust. "When the Declaration of Independence was to be sent out, through which the infant republic asked place among the nations of the world, Peter Miller, a Seventh-day Baptist scholar of Ephrata, translated that Declaration into various foreign languages, and copies of these were prepared in the printing-office of the Seventh-day Baptists at Ephrata." 1 This bill, known as Senate bill No. 404 in the sixty-first Congress, and 3940 in the sixtieth Congress, is one of the latest attempts to secure from Congress a compulsory Sunday law, and commit the government of the United States to a course of religious legislation. With the exception of the penalties imposed, and the long list of excepted classes and items, thirty-three in all, the measure is very similar even in phraseology to the old Maryland Sunday law of 1723, which, by act of Congress in 1801, inadvertently no doubt, was incorporated into the laws of the District of Columbia, and which the District Court of Appeals, in a decision rendered January 14, 1908, set aside as "obsolete," and declared an "outgrowth of the system of |