Sir:—The subscribers, a committee appointed at a meeting of the inhabitants of this town, on the 3d January last, to take such measures as they may deem expedient to oppose any attempts to interfere for religious purposes with the transportation of the Mails and opening the Post Offices on Sunday, have read with pleasure the report of the Committee of the Senate on that subject.
Previous to receiving that report, they were about petitioning Congress—and the public sentiment in this place is so universal against an interference for religious reasons, that a very respectable and numerous subscription could readily have been obtained.—But the report from the Senate represented the subject in so powerful a light—demonstrated so clearly the want of power in the government to legislate for the reasons given by the petitioners, and showed so conclusively, that if they had the power, they certainly had not the ability to determine for all the people of the United States, what God's law was—that we have concluded it would not be necessary at the present session of Congress to take any further steps in the business. We have thought, however, that tho' constituting but a small part of the United States, yet it might not be uninteresting to the committee, to know how much in accordance with our views are the sentiments expressed in their report and to assure them for ourselves, and those whom we represent, that we shall at all times consider them engaged in the highest and most momentous acts of legislation, whenever their efforts shall tend to prevent an interference of the religious with the civil power—all union between church and state—all attempts of religious zealots to enforce by law, what they may term divine truth.
You will please to convey to the gentlemen of the committee, our sense of their proceedings, and for yourself, sir, accept the assurance of our respectful consideration.
GEORGE CLEVELAND,
GIDEON TUCKER,
DUDLEY L. PICKMAN,
WILLARD PEELE,
PERLEY PUTNAM,
NATHANIEL FROTHINGHAM.
The following item is from the "Observer" of Jan. 21, 1829:—
The Report of the Senate on the Sunday Mails. The Portsmouth Advertiser has attacked this Report, "tooth and nail," imputing to it an influence as disastrous as that which attends the writings of Tom Paine or Citizen Brisset. The writer states, that the Senate by adopting it, "has virtually declared, that the laws of Almighty God are no rule for human legislation." We will give one more extract from these remarks, to enable our readers to form a judgment of the writer's character. He must certainly belong to that unfortunate class of the community, for whom "strait-jackets and a spare diet," are usually prescribed.
"By this report, Col. Johnson has put weapons into the hands of infidelity to annoy and harass that very portion of the republican community, which furnishes the only hope, and pledge, that our free institutions will continue permanent."
The following account of a Parisian Sabbath we find in the "Salem Observer" of 1830: