Lennj /c&tz f Duke University Libraries To the Congress Conf Pam q#127 DTTDEbD7DX To the Congress of the Confederate States of America: We, the undersigned, citizens of the Confederate States of America, of the County of in the State of , would bc^ leave to petition your Honorable body to order that no contracts be made, requiring mail-carriers to carry the mail, or Postmaster? to keep open Postolfiecs on the Sabbath day. This will be but conceding to them the same privilege which is conceded to all other officers and citizens of the Government, and not only conceded as a privilege, but required as a duty by the laws of the land, viz : that of abstaining from labor on the Sabbath. The impor- tance of observing one day in seven, as a day of rest, is generally, if not universally, admitted by the people of this Confederacy. u The Sabbath was made for man," and is essantial to the development and mainte- nance of his physical and intellectual powers, to the cultivation of his moral qualities, and to the attainment of the highest ends of his existence. This truth being recognized in the legislation both of our State and Confederat e I rO' emments, and also the fact that the observance of the day is enjoined by divine authority : that which requires the conveyance and delivery of the mail on that day constitutes an exception to the general law and usage. For this excep- tion, in the humble opinion of your petitioners, a sufficient reason does not exist, especially since the inven- tion and general employment of the electric telegraph. If the country derives any advantage from itsSab- bath mails, we think thai advantage more than counterbalanced by the evils attending them. They make ad- ditional expense to the Government. They not only deprive Postmasters and mad-carriers of that rest which the law of nature requires, and that religious culture which is necessary to mal< ajood citizens even, not to speak of their higher interests an 1 relations, but they necessitate the running of coach- s and rail road cars on that day, by which man} arc tempted to travel abroad, the minis of others arc diverted from profita- ble meditations, religious worship is disturbed and the day is secularized. But besides these and other evil effects of a Sabbath mail, we deprecate its continuance as a public viola- tion of an acknowledged law of the Supreme Ruler, on whose favor we depend for national as well as indi- I prosperity. We ha\c now before us the dissolution of the United States Government, which has ever been a p irsist- enl violator of the divine law in regard to the Sabbath. We regard this as one. among the causes that have brought disaster upon that Government. And it is because we earnestly desire the favor of heaven to upon our Southern Confederacy, to establish and preserve it, that we seek the removal of this and all other causes of divine displeasure against it, remembering who has said: •• Them that honor me I will honor.'' Therefore, we hope that your honorabl body will be pleased to receive our petition with favor, and we, as in duty bound, w ill ever pray. NAMES. I NAMES. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2011 with funding from Duke University Libraries http://www.archive.org/details/tocongressofconfOOslsn *8W "inn 44& I petwulife* P H8J