RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION IN THE UNITED

STATES

THE real character of a law is revealed by the motives which led to its enactment, and the results of its practical application. If its enforcement brings happiness to honest, industrious men, and restrains the work of evil-doers, the law is a good one. If, on the other hand, it opens the floodgates to religious prejudice, racial animosity, or personal spite; if through its workings good citizens are thrown into embarrassment, fined, and imprisoned, and their liberties restricted, this is positive evidence that the law is evil.

To say, “Such is the law," is not sufficient justification for its continued existence. The true principle may be stated in the words of Scripture, “The law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient.” 1 Tim. 1:9.

The real purpose of law is to restrain evil-doers, and to place citizens in a position where they are secure in the exercise of their natural rights. No matter how widely or strictly enforced the law may be, if it invades the realm of conscience and makes it possible for the intolerant to persecute their fellow men, it should be expunged at once from the statute books.

Unjust Working of Sunday Laws

Tested by this standard, what is the character of Sunday laws? Have good men been made to suffer under them, or have such laws been generally beneficial? This question is not hard to answer. In many sections of our own land, and in numerous cases, those upon whom the Sunday-law penalties have fallen with greatest weight, have been industrious men, men who were good citizens.

Despite the freedom in religion guaranteed by both the Federal Constitution and the State constitutions, and the clauses in these documents forbidding legislators to pass religious laws, certain agencies have been constantly at work to override and overthrow these barriers against intolerance. Strenuous efforts to revive the ancient New England blue laws, or at least to prohibit by civil law all Sunday labor, have been of late years redoubled. Sunday-law lobbyists in the halls of Congress have met with poor success, but it is significant that most of the States of the Union have yielded to the persistent demands of a few zealous but misguided religionists, and that only a few States remain untram

Paul said, "I would to God, that not only thou, but also all that hear me this day, were both almost, and altogether such as I am, except these bonds." Acts 26: 29.

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Dr. Philip Schaff well says: The church, as such, has nothing to do with the state except to obey its laws and to strengthen its moral foundations; the state has nothing to do with the church except to protect her in her property and liberty; and the state must be equally just to all forms of belief and unbelief which do not endanger the public safety."- Church and State," p. 10.

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meled by Sunday laws. Fines, jail terms, and even untimely death brought on by the hardships of religious persecution made possible by Sunday laws, have been the portion of upright, honest American citizens in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Bigoted religious enthusiasts have been active, even as late as 1920, and have thrown into jail honest and inoffensive citizens for no greater crime than driving a horse and wagon along a country road on Sunday.

During 1895 and 1896 no less than seventy-six God-fearing Seventhday Adventists were prosecuted in the United States and Canada under numerous Sunday laws. Of these, twenty-eight in Tennessee, Maryland, Arkansas, California, and Canada served a total of 1,144 days in jail and in the chain gang with common criminals.

Religious Persecution in Arkansas

The years from 1885 to 1887 saw numerous prosecutions in Arkansas, though the constitution of that State declares:

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All men have a natural and indefeasible right to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their own consciences; no man can of right be compelled to attend, erect, or support any place of worship, or to maintain any ministry against his consent. No human authority can, in any case or manner whatsoever, control or interfere with the right of conscience; and no preference shall ever be given by law to any religious establishment, denomination, or mode of worship above any other."- Article 2, sec. 24.

Notwithstanding this guaranty, the Arkansas Legislature enacted a law forbidding common labor on Sunday, and in 1885 repealed an exemption clause permitting observers of the seventh day to work on the other six days. Among the God-fearing, peaceable citizens who were arrested and sent to jail for Sunday labor were Pastor J. W. Scoles, of Springdale, Ark., for spending two hours on Sunday painting the rear end of a church, out of sight from the public road; J. A. Armstrong, of Springdale, Ark., for digging potatoes in his garden on Sunday; and Z. Swearingen and his son, living eleven miles south of Bentonville, Ark., for hauling fence rails on Sunday.

Mr. Armstrong, when arrested in July, 1886, called for the affidavit on which the writ was issued. Mayor S. L. Staples, of Springdale, before whom he was taken for trial, said he himself had seen Mr. Armstrong at work in his garden on Sunday, a Mr. A. J. Vaughn having called his attention to Mr. Armstrong while he was at work, and said, "Now see that you do your duty." This, the mayor said, made an affidavit unnecessary.

Bigotry has no head and cannot think, no heart and cannot feel. When she moves, it is in wrath; when she pauses, it is amid rain. Her prayers are curses, her god is a demon, her communion is death, her vengeance is eternity, and her decalogue is written in the blood of her victims.- Daniel O'Connell.

All Sunday legislation is the product of pagan Rome; the Saxon laws were the product of middle-age legislation of the Holy Roman Empire." The English laws are the expansion of the Saxon, and the American are the tramscript of the English. The first Sunday law, the edict of the emperor Constan time, was the product of that pagan conception developed by the Romans which made religion a part of the state. The day was to be venerated as a religious duty owed to the god of the sun.- Pennsylvania Superior Court Reports, Wa XXV, p. 134.

Wel has it been said by the great scholar and thinker. Philip Schaff Secula: power has provec a satanic gift to the church, and ecclesiasticall power has proved an engine of tyranny in the hands of the state."- Chunath and State. p. 11.

It is proper to take alarm at the first experiment upon our liberties. We hold this prudent realousy to be the first duty of citizens, and one of thee noblest characteristics of the late Revolution.

Experience witnesseth that ecclesiastica establishments. instead of maintai ing the purity and efficacy of religion have had a contrary operation. Dang almost freer centuries has the lega establishment of Christianity been on 'traa.. What have beer its fruits? More or less. in al: places, pride and indolesce in the clergy: ignorance and servility in the laity, in both, superstition, bigotry, and persecution.

Torrents of Hood have been spil: in the Old World in consequence of venir attempts of the secular arm to extinguist religious discord by proscribing alll' differences in religious opinion.- Jemes Madison, in his Memoria! t. the Geaneral Assembly of Virginia. ir. 1785.

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Mr. Armstrong was fined one o ar an In default of payment, the mayor allowing him one dollar a day at

the fine and to were sud

In Jail for Conscience' Sake

$5

Within four hours from the time of his arrest. Mr. Armerin charge of the marshal, was on his way to the a at Fayetteville He was locked up with another prisoner, with a thing!taines and a dirty blanket about thirty inches wide for a bed for With The next night he was allowed to lie in the corridor on the alpaca coat for a bed, and his Bible for a pill w friend in town furnished him a quilt and a pill w his friend brought him another quilt, and thus he was ma le quite comfortable. On the fifth day, at noon, he was released.

The third night a On the fourth night

Upon his return to Springdale, the mayor notified Mr. Armstrong that his fine and costs were not satisfied, and that unless they were paid within ten days, an execution would be issued and his property sold. Mr. Armstrong filed an appeal to the circuit court. The appeal was sustained, and Mr. Armstrong was released from further penalty

Honest Citizens Behind Prison Bars

Mr. Swearingen and his son, a youth of seventeen years, were lodged in jail Oct. 1, 1886. Thirteen days later the sheriff levied on and took possession of a horse belonging to Mr. Swearingen. This he sold at public sale on. October 25 for $26.50, leaving a balance against Mr Swearingen of $7.70. However, Mr. Swearingen and his son were released the day the horse was sold. On December 15 the sheriff again appeared upon Mr. Swearingen's premises, and presented a bill for $28.95, of which $21.25 was for the board of Mr. Swearingen and his son while in jail, and the remainder - $7.70--the balance of the fine Mr. Swearingen had on hand no money to pay the bill. The sheriff then levied on his mare, harness, wagon, cow, and calf. Before the day of sale, however, Mr. Swearingen's fellow church members raised the money by donations, paid the bill, and secured the release of the property.

It is significant that the witness upon whose testimony Mr. Sweatin gen and his son were convicted said the rails were hauled on Sunday, February 14, but the act repealing the exemption clause was not present until March 3. The act was not approved by the governor until March 7, consequently these two men were convicted for honest work done twenty-one days before the measure under which they were convicted became a law.