Liberty in the Nineteenth Century

by Frederic May Holland

Thus the Association began to co-operate with the National League; and the latter soon had the support of more than sixty local organisations. The movement for establishing "Equal Rights in Religion" was uniting Liberal Christians, Jews, independent theists, Spiritualists, materialists, evolutionists, agnostics, and atheists. All were willing to call themselves "Freethinkers" and work together as they have never done since 1877. Then the League felt itself strong enough to call for "taxation of church property," "secularisation of public schools," "abrogation of Sabbatarian laws," and also for woman suffrage, as well as compulsory education throughout the United States. Steps were taken towards nominating Ingersoll on this platform for President of the Republic.

These plans had to be abandoned; the agitation subsided; and the harmony between lovers of liberty from various standpoints was lost. A fatal difference of opinion was manifest in 1878, in regard to those Acts of Congress called "the Comstock laws."

These statutes forbade sending obscene literature through the mails; and there had been more than a hundred recent convictions. Some of the prosecutions were said to have been prompted by religious bigotry; and there seems to have been unjustifiable examination of mail matter. The most important question was whether the laws ought to be enforced against newspapers and pamphlets about free love and marital tyranny, which were not meant to be indecent but really were so occasionally. A publisher in Massachusetts was sentenced in June, 1878, to two years of imprisonment for trying to mail such a pamphlet; but he was soon released. More severe punishment has been inflicted recently for similar offences. The majority of people in America and England favoured the exclusion by law of indecent literature from circulation; and this course has been considered necessary on account of the known frailty of human nature. The members of the Free Religious Association were willing to have the Comstock laws changed, but not repealed; and they voted, early in 1878, to take no part in what threatened to be an unfortunate controversy. The League, however, was divided on the question whether these laws ought to be amended or repealed. Abbot, Underwood, and other prominent members declared that literature ought to be excluded from the mails or admitted according as it was intentionally and essentially indecent, or only accidentally so. Thus Ingersoll said: "We want all nastiness suppressed for ever; but we also want the mails open to all decent people." Other members held that the Comstock laws ought to be repealed entirely, and no restriction put on the circulation of any literature except by public opinion. This must be admitted to agree with the principle that each one ought to have all the liberty consistent with the equal liberty of everyone else; but this application of the theory cannot be considered politic in agitating for religious freedom. The Investigator, Truthseeker, and other aggressive papers, however, called for complete repeal; and a petition with this object received seventy thousand signatures.

The National League had voted, in 1876, that legislation against obscene publications was absolutely necessary, but that the existing laws needed amendment. The question whether this position should be maintained, was announced as the principal business to be settled in the convention which met at Syracuse on October 26, 1878. Mr. Abbot, the president, and other prominent officers declared that they should not be candidates for re-election if the position assumed two years before was not kept. Scarcely had the convention met, when its management passed into the hands of the friends of repeal. They allowed Judge Hurlbut, formerly on the bench in the Supreme Court of the State, to argue in favour of closing the mails against publications "manifestly designed or mainly tending to corrupt the morals of the young." Much respect was due to the author of a book which declared, in 1850, that married women had a right to vote and hold property, as well as that the State "cannot rightfully compel any man to keep Sunday as a religious institution; nor can it compel him to cease from labour or recreation on that day; since it cannot be shown that the ordinary exercise of the human faculties on that day is in any way an infringement upon the rights of mankind." On Sunday morning, October 27th, it was agreed that the question of repeal or reform should be postponed until the next annual convention; but the decision was made a foregone conclusion that afternoon, when three-fifths of the members voted not to re-elect Mr. Abbot and other champions of reform. The defeated candidates left the convention at once, as did Mr. Underwood and many other members, Judge Hurlbut taking the lead. A new league was organised by the seceders; but it was not a success.

The movement for amending, but not repealing, the Comstock laws was given up; and most of those who had favoured it took sides with those who had refused to agitate. There was little interest in "The Demands of Liberalism" thenceforth among the Liberal Christians, Reformed Jews, Transcendentalists, and evolutionists. These and other moderate liberals refuse to call themselves "Freethinkers"; and they make little attempt at collective and distinctive action. The Free Religious Association did nothing towards secularising the laws of Massachusetts between 1876 and 1884. The agitation which began in the latter year ended on May 27, 1887, when the Sunday laws were discussed at Boston in a large and enthusiastic convention. The Legislature had just passed a bill to legalise Saturday evening amusements, as well as boating, sailing, driving, use of telegraph, and sale of milk, bread, newspapers, and medicines on Sunday; the signature of the Governor had not yet been given; but it was agreed that these changes must be made, and for the reason that the old restrictions could not be enforced. Judge Putnam, of the State District Court, told the convention that "the Sunday law, so called, has not in a long, long time been enforced," except by "a prosecution here and there"; and that if it were to be enforced strictly, the prosecutions would occupy nearly all the week. He opposed any restraint on "entertainments not of an immoral tendency." Mr. Garrison, son of the famous abolitionist, declared that Sunday ought to be "the holiday of the week." Captain Adams, of Montreal, said: "This is not a mere question how much men may do or enjoy on Sunday: it is a question of human liberty, a question whether ecclesiastical tyranny shall still put its yoke on our necks." The tone was bold, but thoroughly practical from first to last.

An earnest protest against closing the Chicago Exposition on the people's day of leisure was made by the F. R. A., in May, 1893; and an important victory in behalf of religious liberty was won in 1898 in Massachusetts. The Sunday laws of this State have been so improved as to permit what are called "charity concerts," and are not made up entirely of ecclesiastical music, to be given for the pecuniary benefit of charitable and religious societies on Sunday evenings. The Legislature which met early in 1898 was asked by representatives of the Monday Conference of Unitarian Ministers, the Women's Christian Temperance Union, and several other religious organisations to alter the law so as to prevent any but "sacred music" from being heard on the only evening when many people in Boston can go to concerts. The officers of the F. R. A. made a formal request to be heard by a committee of the Legislature through counsel, who proved that the "charity concerts" were really unobjectionable, and that the opposition to them was due entirely to zeal for an ancient text forbidding Hebrews to labour on Saturday in Palestine.

The injustice of stretching this prohibition so far as to try to stop concerts on Sunday evenings in America was pointed out by representatives, not only of the F. R. A., but also of the International Religious Liberty Association, which has been formed to protect Christians who have kept the Sabbath on the original day set apart in Exodus and Deuteronomy, from being punished for not prolonging their rest from honest labour over an additional day, first selected by an emperor whose decrees are not worthy of reverence. This association has offices in Chicago, New York City, Toronto, London, Basel, and other cities; and its principles are ably advocated in a weekly paper entitled the American Sentinel. Representatives of this organisation assisted those of the F. R. A. in forcing the "charity concerts" question to be decided on its own merits, independent of ancient texts. The members of the legislative committee made a unanimous report against suppressing these harmless amusements; and their opinion was sustained by their colleagues. This victory was duly celebrated at the annual convention of the F. R. A., in Boston, on May 27, 1898. Among the speakers that afternoon was the secretary of the I.R.L. A., who said: "If any nation under heaven has the right to confiscate one-seventh of my time, and tell how I shall and how I shall not use that, then the whole principle of inherent rights is denied, and it now is simply a matter of policy whether it shall not confiscate two-sevenths, three-sevenths, or seven-sevenths, and take away all my liberty."

Since 1878, the agitation for religious equality has been carried on mainly by materialistic atheists and agnostics, with some assistance from Spiritualists. These aggressive liberals continue to call themselves to Liberty in the Nineteenth Century.

"Freethinkers," and to support the Investigatory Truthseeker, and other papers which have much to say against Sunday laws, religious use of the Bible in public schools, and exemption of churches from taxation. They often reprint "The Demands of Liberalism"; and one of these requests has been so amended in Canada as to ask for the repeal of "all laws directly or indirectly enforcing the observance of Sunday or the Sabbath." The attack on the Comstock laws has subsided; and no reference was made to them in 1897 in the call for a convention of the organisation which took the place of the whole system of national and local leagues in 1885. The name then chosen was "The American Secular Union." The words, "and Freethought Federation" were added in 1895, when two kindred associations were consolidated. It was under strong and constant pressure from these aggressive liberals that the great museums of art and natural history in New York were thrown open on Sundays to longing crowds. One of the petitions was signed by representatives of a hundred and twelve labour organisations. The trustees of the Art Museum were induced to open it in the summer of 1891 by the contribution of $3000, which had been collected by some young ladies for meeting extra expenses. Thirty-eight thousand people took advantage, in August, 1892, of their first opportunity to visit the Museum of Natural History on their one day of leisure; and these visitors were remarkable for good behaviour. There has been a similar experience in the Boston Art Museum ever since the Sunday opening in 1877.

VII. An exciting contest took place at Chicago in 1893. More than fifty nations were co-operating with the people of every one of the United States in commemorating the discovery of America. Disreputable politicians had persuaded Congress to pass a bill, by which closing the Exposition on Sundays was made a condition of receiving aid from the National Treasury. The people of Chicago had given three times as much, however, as Congress; and there was much dissatisfaction among those citizens who had bought stock in the enterprise. The grounds had been kept open to visitors for some months, Sunday after Sunday, until the buildings were formally thrown open on May 1st; and the receipts had been liberal enough to prove that continuance of this course would be greatly to the advantage of these shareholders, while Sunday closing might result in heavy loss. During the first three Sundays of May the gates were kept shut by order of the Board of National Commissioners, made up of members from every State. Their action and that of Congress had been sanctioned by petitions bearing millions of signatures; but it is a significant fact that the alleged signers in Pennsylvania were three times as many as the entire population of the State. Many people had been counted again and again as members of different organisations; and this fraud was committed in other parts of the country. No attempt to find out what the people really wished was made except in Texas; and there the majority was in favour of opening the gates. Sabbatarians acknowledged publicly that they got little support from the secular press; and much opposition was made to them by some of the great dailies, as well as by the organs of aggressive liberalism.