In 1830, certain memorials for prohibiting the transportation of mails and the opening of post-offices on Sunday were referred to the Congressional Committee on Post-offices and Post-roads.  The committee reported unfavorably to the prayer of the memorialists.  Their report was adopted and printed by order of the Senate of the United States, and the committee discharged from the further consideration of the subject.  Of the Constitution, they say:—­

     “We look in vain to that instrument for authority to say whether
     the first day, or seventh day, or whether any day, has been made
     holy by the Almighty.”

“The Constitution regards the conscience of the Jew as sacred as that of the Christian, and gives no more authority to adopt a measure affecting the conscience of a solitary individual than of a whole community.  That representative who would violate this principle would lose his delegated character, and forfeit the confidence of his constituents.  If Congress should declare the first day of the week holy, it would not convince the Jew nor the Sabbatarian.  It would dissatisfy both, and consequently convert neither....If a solemn act of legislation shall in one point define the law of God, or point out to the citizen one religious duty, it may with equal propriety define every part of revelation, and enforce every religious obligation, even to the forms and ceremonies of worship, the endowments of the church and support of the clergy.”

“The framers of the Constitution recognized the eternal principle that man’s relation to his God is above human legislation, and his right of conscience inalienable.  Reasoning was not necessary to establish this truth, we are conscious of it in our own bosom.  It is this consciousness which, in defiance of human laws, has sustained so many martyrs in tortures and flames.  They felt that their duty to God was superior to human enactments, and that man could exercise no authority over their consciences.  It is an inborn principle which nothing can eradicate.”

“It is also a fact that counter memorials, equally respectable, oppose the interference of Congress on the ground that it would be legislating upon a religious subject, and therefore unconstitutional.”

Hon. A.H.  Cragin, of New Hamphshire, in a speech in the House of Representatives, said:—­

“When our forefathers reared the magnificent structure of a free Republic in this western land, they laid its foundations broad and deep in the eternal principles of right.  Its materials were all quarried from the mountain of truth; and as it rose majestically before an astonished world, it rejoiced the hearts and hopes of mankind.  Tyrants only cursed the workmen and their workmanship.  Its architecture was new.  It had no model in Grecian or Roman history.  It seemed a paragon let down from Heaven to inspire the hopes of men, and to demonstrate God’s