the laws of a holy and merciful God; to the rights of the religious portion of the community; and even to the rights of the brute creation."

From Augusta, Maine.

"Let the Christian Sabbath cease to be observed as a day of rest from secular labors, and of devotion to the offices of religion, and the influence of religious principle would soon be at an end. But public sentiment in favor of the Sabbath must be sustained and strengthened by the manifestation of respect for it, in the official acts of the Government. * *

"But it has been alleged, that if the transportation of the mail, and the opening of the Post-offices, on the Sabbath, should cease, it would occasion an interruption of public and private business; productive of evils which no justly-to-be-anticipated good can countervail. To this objection we reply, that if it had been usual to hold courts of justice and to transact legislative business on the Sabbath, it would be deemed a great detriment to the public and private interests to suspend their proceedings on that day; and arguments of as much weight might have been urged, and with equal confidence and zeal, as are now offered against the prayer of our petition. But will it be insisted, that suspension of business in those instances should not have occurred, and ought not to be sanctioned? Is not the reason of the thing as strong and conclusive in the one case as in the other?

*

"We deeply feel, that it is an object of the greatest import to propitiate the favor and blessing of Him, whose smiles give prosperity to every enterprise, and whose frown rendereth abortive every purpose."

From Boston, Mass.

"That your memorialists, in common with multitudes of their fellow citizens in all parts of the United States, regard the observance of the Christian Sabbath as pre-eminently conducive to the prevalence of good morals, intelligence, and happiness; as tending to secure and perpetuate all the blessings of a free Government, and as incomparably the best and most powerful means of preserving good order in the community, and of promoting the public prosperity. On the other hand, they consider

the desecration of the Sabbath as a great evil, which, if it should become universal, or nearly so, would be followed by general ignorance, licentiousness and vice; and in such a state of things, it would be impossible to sustain our republican institutions, or those religious privileges which are more valuable than life itself.

"Your memorialists cannot but lament, that any thing should be done by the authority of the General Government, which tends to diminish the sanctity of a divine institution, or to weaken the bands of public morality. They respectfully and earnestly request, therefore, that so much of the Post-office law as requires Post-offices to be kept open on the Sabbath, may be repealed; and that the laws of the several States now in existence for the protection of the Sabbath, may not be violated by the Post-office establishment, nor by any branch of the public ser

vice.

"Your memorialists** complain that the present law, which requires Post-offices to be kept open on the Sabbath, is, as they conceive, unconstitutional. Of the constitution of the United States, it is a fundamental principle, that powers not given to the General Government, either expressly or by fair implication, cannot be exercised by that Government. But no power is thus given to the General Government to encroach upon the religious privileges of the people. From the first settlement of this country, the privilege of keeping the Sabbath without interruption has been esteemed most valuable, and would not, at any time, have been voluntarily surrendered. * *

"Should it be said, that the transportation of the mail, and the keeping open of the Post-offices on the Sabbath, are works of necessity, the assertion is sufficiently refuted by these facts, viz: that, during a great part of the period of our national existence, the mail has not been transported, and Post-offices have not been kept open on the Sabbath; that many of our most enterprising merchants habitually refuse to take their letters from the office on that day: and that in the greatest commercial emporium in the world, the Post-office is not opened, nor is any mail made up or received there on the Sabbath. There is supposed to be five times as much commercial intercourse between London and Liverpool, as between New York and Philadelphia;

and yet no mail leaves London for Liverpool between Saturday evening and Monday evening. * *

"If Congress has power to make the servants of the public labor on the Sabbath in one Department, it has equal power in all other Departments. But would it be tolerated in this Christian community, that courts of justice and custom-houses should be open on the Sabbath, and that all public offices under the General Government should be held by men who have no regard to that day, in exclusion of all who reverence the sanctuary, and remember the Sabbath to keep it holy? Is a conscientious attachment to religious observances a disqualification for office ? **

"The proper management of the Post-office requires the agency of men of integrity: and it cannot be good policy to lessen any of the sanctions by which honesty and fidelity are preserved.

"The transaction of public business by the transportation and opening of the mails tends constantly and powerfully to increase the number of those who do not observe the Sabbath, and ultimately to destroy the public influence of that divine institution .altogether.

**"If these habits and practices should continue to increase, nothing can be clearer than that the restraints of religion will be -removed from the community at large, and either cease to exist, or be consigned to a comparatively small number of retired and obscure individuals.

“No legislator should be ignorant that those members of the community who utterly disregard the Sabbath, are soon brought to make it a day of dissipation and riot; and those who have thus desecrated the day for any considerable time, are prepared for the grossest vices and the most disgraceful crimes. Who does not know, that the perpetration of fraud, theft, arson, burglary, robbery, and murder, has become frequent in most parts of the United States? Who does not know that these crimes are perpetrated, almost exclusively, by persons who have long been in the habit of violating the Sabbath? In one of our state prisons, containing five or six hundred convicts, particular inquiry was made on this subject. The history of one convict was the history of all. They had never observed a Sabbath, or had

ceased to observe it before they committed the crimes for which they were suffering the vengeance of the laws.

"The system of Government, then, which tends to increase the number of Sabbath-breakers, tends to fill our state prisons with felons, and our streets with the cry of violence; and to stain our land with blood. Here is no mistake; there can be none; and the more this subject is examined, the more irresistibly will it appear, that those who would promote the observance of the Sabbath, by removing temptations to violate it, are the true benefactors of their country. * *

"But your memorialists conceive, that, while the General Government can make no law for the support of religion, it is equally true, that the General Government ought not to make a law, the tendency of which shall be the destruction of both religion and morality. On this ground the present memorial is offered. The existing Post-office law violates religious obligations, and, so far as it has this effect, it ought to be repealed."

The foregoing extracts of Petitions, Memorials, Remonstrances, and Reports, are copied from "The American State Papers, Class VII. Post-office Department."

The reader would be abundantly rewarded by an examination of all the petitions and memorials which have been presented on this subject. A few more of them may be found in the book from which the above extracts were taken; and others, probably among the archives of the nation.

Further extracts from petitions and remonstrances, on the same subject, and presented at the same time, quoted from a small Tract published in New York, 1829, giving An account of Memorials to Congress," &c., will now be added. This Tract gives an account of more than four hundred and fifty distinct petitions, from more than twenty different States; to which are affixed the names of many of the most distinguished men in the nation, as may be seen by referring to that work.

From Leroy, N. Y.

"Your petitioners have observed, with deep regret, that the more we are prospered as a nation, under the smiles of a benign Providence, the more are the precepts of our Lord and Savior,

and the authority of the God of our fathers, openly violated; uutil, as we have every reason to fear, from the pinnacle of prosperity and glory, to which the God of heaven hath exalted our beloved country, we shall, by our public and national sins, be precipitated to the abyss of irreligion and ruin.”

From Columbia County, Geo.

"The undersigned do earnestly solicit your honorable body to devise such measures, that the transportation of the mail, and the opening thereof, and the delivery of letters, may no longer be required on the Sabbath."

From Greensburg, Penn.

"We do not ask you to put a stop to the iniquities prevailing in private life; but to reform those national evils, that are in opposition to the best interests of our country, the law of a holy and merciful God, to the rights of religious men, and even to the rights of the brute creation."

From Rockingham County, N. C.

"The undersigned do view the practice of the Post-office establishment, relating to the conveyance of the mails on the Sabbath, as a grievance, which we think to be contrary to the laws of Sacred Writ, as well as contrary to the intent and meaning of the laws of the United States: We therefore solicit most humbly of the honorable Congress a redress of the aforesaid grievance."

From William E. Channing and others, Boston.

"This application, we trust, will not be misunderstood. We do not ask Congress to enforce any season, or form, of public worship. We should deprecate, as among the greatest evils, any legislation intended to favor the views of a sect, or to establish a particular faith. We only pray, that Congress may not counteract, by its measures, those institutions which are cherished by the community, as the means of public and private virtue.”

From Albion, Maine.

"Your memorialists must confess, that they have a personal