The Captivity of the Republic

SPEECH OF THOS. J. MORGAN

After stating whom he represented, and that he had received word “from three hundred and seventy-five labor organizations, coming from every town and city in the United States, in which there is sufficient industry carried on to promote or encourage the organization of a body of workmen,” and covering up to date “thirty-three States of the Union,” he said:— CAR 26.6

“Now, Mr. Chairman, having stated the authority that is vested in me, I wish to say that I appear before this committee under very great embarrassment. I did not know until two hours before I took the train, that I should be able to reach this committee. I arrived here at eleven o’clock last night, and being in a new place, in unaccustomed conditions, I lost my sleep. In addition to that, I am just from the bench. You see [holding up his hands] I am a workman; there are the callouses and corns that are a necessary incident to manual labor. I come unprepared by education to meet the arguments presented here, or to present my case with the force and fluency that gentlemen in the opposition have, having been forced by my condition to labor all my life-time since nine years of age, without a single vacation; absolutely denied the opportunities of education except that which was wrested from my sleeping hours. CAR 27.1

“I am also embarrassed by the fact that I find myself, for the first time in my life, in the midst of a lot of friends of labor, whose existence I never before was aware of; and I am absolutely astounded as well as embarrassed at the statements they make. They not only claim to speak in the name of labor, such as we have it in the United States; but, lo and behold, they speak with the voice of authority from my fellow-workers in Great Britain, from which country I came. Not only that, but they take the name of a man whom I honor more, possibly, than any other, and hurl authority from that source at this committee;—that man is Karl Marx. They speak in the name of the Social Democrats of Germany also; and I, being a Social Democrat, being an Englishman, and associated intimately with the reform movement in that country, and being here in the United States for twenty-three years an active labor reformer,—why, you can imagine my embarrassment and astonishment when I find myself in the presence of these advocates and friends of Karl Marx, the Social Democrats of England, and the friends of labor reform here in the United States. [Turning to the clergymen.] I regret exceedingly that I cannot grasp your hands in fraternal friendship. I am sorry that I have to say, Oh, save us from our friends. I am embarrassed in being compelled to say that I am here with authority to absolutely repudiate you, and charge you with false representation. CAR 27.2

“When I heard the statements they made, I thought, I will approach this matter with kindness, gentleness, etc.; I thought to myself, I hope I will have the power to deal with this question in the same spirit; but I am afraid I have overstepped the limits already. I have this thing so near at heart that ordinary composure is absolutely destroyed when I find that we are attacked, that our interests are so misrepresented, that our desires and wants are so distorted by these men who claim to speak with authority. CAR 27.3

“[To the Clergymen]. You bring, men’s names from England, who are absolutely unknown. What is the matter with Joseph Arch? What is the matter with Tom Mann? What is the matter with Ben Tillott? Can you speak in their names?—No; you bring some unknown names here to add force to your misrepresentation. You have never been the friends of labor, and at this time you have no right to speak in that sense. CAR 27.4

“When you brought your references here, my mind ran back at once to England, to Joseph Arch, a layman in the church, whose zeal for the Christian religion was too great to be contained. As a layman he taught, under the hedge-rows, the moral truths that Christ enunciated, and he found in his efforts to lift up his class that the whole array of the clergymen of Great Britain were against him, as we find the whole array of the clergy of the United States, except the Catholic Church, arrayed against us. CAR 28.1

“[Voices from the clergymen expressing disapproval.] CAR 28.2

“Possibly that statement I made that the whole clergy was arrayed against us is not strictly true. I hope to save myself from any statement that is not absolutely based upon facts. Possibly I would be right if I said that the evangelical churches of the United States, as here represented, are absolutely opposed to us and to our interests. Probably I should except the Catholic Church; possibly I will admit that. I tell you I am embarrassed. Possibly you will give me some consideration at least in that respect. I wanted to undo the work that you have been doing here, and I will do it to the best of my ability. CAR 28.3

“Joseph Arch, to whom I referred, who now lives and from whom you have got no word, who was lifted from the hedge-row to the House of Parliament, was placed there by the people, and he promised to make it possible for them to live in decency and respectability. After he had accomplished that, the clergymen of Great Britain called him to a great meeting in Exeter Hall, at which there were present two hundred clergymen. They asked him to explain the purposes of his organization, and he did so. It was to lift the people out of absolute ignorance, into the comforts and decencies of manhood; it was to kill the saloon, to empty the jail, to give men in the agricultural districts a chance to live as decent human beings. He had accomplished a great deal in that direction, and he not only told the ministers, ‘We not only did it without your help, but we did it in the face of your absolute effort in antagonism.’ And he said, ‘After we have accomplished this work you call us to account! We give you the results of our work. We did that without your help. We will go right along. All that we ask you is that if you cannot see your way to help us, get out of the way and leave us alone to do our work.’ This is my answer to your English production. CAR 28.4

“You speak here of the Social Democrats of Germany. What right have you? You have no authority at all. You go to work and take this little bit, and that little bit, from the work of Karl Marx, the Social Democrats, and the result of their convention, and present it here with authority. I am a Social Democrat. I belong to that organization, and have done all I could to proselyte, in my humble way, the minds of the workmen of the United States, to the principles they hold. And I want to tell you clergymen that the principles held by the Social Democrats of Germany are the principles enunciated by Jesus Christ, and which you do not understand. CAR 28.5

“[Voices: ‘Hear, hear.’] CAR 29.1

“Mr. Chairman, I not only speak with this authority that I have expressed, but I want to call attention to the relative position that we occupy toward this World’s Fair matter, in comparison with this body of clergymen organized like a machine [turning to the ministers]-to call up one after another to do his portion of the work. CAR 29.2

“Mr. Durborow.—Mr. Morgan, the committee is at this end of the table. CAR 29.3

“Mr. Morgan.—My general statement as to my unfitness for this kind of work will excuse me, I hope. If the friends of the Church had been kinder to me when I was a child, had they taught me to read and write, I possibly would have been able to follow all the requirements of refined and common etiquette and society. Thanks to them, possibly I shall make some bad breaks, for which I ask to be excused. CAR 29.4

“I was going to say, Mr. Chairman, that in addition to the authority that I have here set forth, I wish to say that we workmen of Chicago particularly and especially demand the right to be heard with more consideration than our opponents. As soon as the word went forth that it was proposed to have an exposition, a world’s exposition, in the United States, the labor organizations everywhere responded with gladness to that proposition; and as soon as it was settled that the World’s Fair should be held somewhere in the United States, Chicago workmen put forth their claim to Chicago as the proper geographical point to have a world’s exposition located. They backed up their request that Chicago should be the place, with petitions from labor organizations throughout the United States, to such an extent that Senator Hawley was able to stand up in the Congress of the United States and say,’ I hold in my hand petitions from organized labor from every State in the Union, except New York, asking that the Fair shall be located in Chicago.’ That Fair was located there. But even before it was located there, the demand was made by Congress that Chicago should show its ability to conduct that Fair, by subscribing for ten millions of her stock. The workmen put their hands into their pockets, and with dimes and fifty-cent pieces and dollars subscribed for half a million of the stock. CAR 29.5

“What did the Church do? Did the churches demand that there should be an exposition of the world’s products and man’s ingenuity? If they did, they did it silently. The workmen responded in this substantial fashion; and since then they have built the Fair, and consecrated it with their blood. Hundreds and hundreds of workmen have been killed and maimed in the construction of that mighty work. And I think that because of these reasons, what we have to say should have additional weight attached to it. CAR 29.6

“Not only that; but giving all due credit to the master minds who designed and planned that wonderful exposition,—giving them all due credit,—the products exhibited there come from this kind of hands. [Holding up his own labor-hardened hands.] And after we have built the Fair, sacrificed our lives in doing so, after we have contributed by our ingenuity and labor in placing there the exhibits, these men, who had no hand in it, neither in designing, constructing, or in anything else connected with it, have come and shut the gate and turned the lock on us workmen! And then they come here with the miserable plea that they are instructed, that they are justified in speaking for labor! It is absolutely astounding, the assumption these men have in making their plea. I cannot comprehend how they could risk their reputation for veracity, for honesty, and for truth,—and that is all the stock in trade that the clergy have, and if that is lost, they are gone-how they could risk their veracity and honesty in making these statements. One of them comes here this morning, and says, ‘I hold a petition from a labor Union in New York City.’ What labor Union? CAR 30.1

“Rev Mr. W. F. Crafts.—The engineers of the United States CAR 30.2

“Mr. Morgan.—Who? CAR 30.3

“Mr. Crafts.—The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers. CAR 30.4

“Mr. Morgan.—No! Look here; that claim, that statement that is made, that they do not duplicate things is basely, maliciously false. They do duplicate things. And they bring in a single petition from one of the local Unions in the State of New York, and you make people believe you have got another organization. CAR 30.5

“Mr. Crafts.—Oh, no. CAR 30.6

“Mr. Morgan.—Well, of course my comprehensive faculties are not equal to grasp your way of managing these things. [Laughter.] Another statement is made that because the engineers of the United States speak, that settles the question; that they are the most intelligent of all workmen in the United States. I absolutely repudiate that statement.” CAR 30.7

[Here Mr. Morgan spoke a few words touching some rather personal matters between the organization which he represented and the organization of engineers, which we think it best for us not to seem to take any part in, by printing and circulating as widely as this document will be spread.—Publishers.] CAR 30.8

“Then the plea is made that the opening of the Fair will necessitate extra work upon the part of the engineers. Let me call your attention to this fact, that if the World’s Fair is closed on Sunday, people will be absolutely prohibited from enjoying its privileges on that day. That day will be given to traveling. Men will start on Sunday, reach Chicago Sunday night or Monday, spend the week at the Fair, take the train at the latest hour Saturday night or the earliest hour Sunday morning. CAR 31.1

“Mr. Durborow.—Mr. Morgan, you have been speaking just twenty-five minutes, and have consumed the time allotted to you. I understand that you desire Mr. Askew to follow you, and unless you give way to him, of course you would occupy his time. CAR 31.2

“Mr. Morgan.—O, excuse me, Mr. Chairman; I did not think I had been talking so long. But really I would like to have a little more time. I have a paper here which I would like very much to present. CAR 31.3

“Mr. Durborow.—If you have the consent of the other speakers, of course it will be all right. CAR 31.4

“Dr. H. W. Thomas.—I will give you my time. CAR 31.5

“Mr. Durborow.—Simply state a synopsis of your paper if you can, and give it as quickly as possible. CAR 31.6

“Mr. Morgan.-I will read it as rapidly as possible, and you can read it at your leisure. CAR 31.7

“[Reading.] In regard to the religious side of this matter, I wish to say that the workingmen attribute the action of Congress in closing the World’s Fair on Sunday to the activity and influence of the Protestant evangelical churches, and that in the accomplishment of its purpose, the representatives of these churches assume to be the guardians of the economical and moral interests of the working people, and in their name and behalf, urge Congress to close the gates of the World’s Fair on Sunday. CAR 31.8

“We are here duly authorized by the only organized and formal movement made by workingmen in relation to the closing of the Fair on Sunday, to absolutely deny the right of these churches or their representatives to speak or act for us in this matter, and to prove to you by documentary evidence we present that all such representations made to Congress by these churches were wilfully or ignorantly fraudulent. CAR 31.9

“In this connection we desire to call the attention of congressmen who may have been influenced by the action of these churches, and who are sincerely interested in the religious side of this question, to the fact that the indifference or active antagonism of the working classes toward the Church is at present, and has been for years past, a subject of the most serious consideration by the clergy. We respectfully represent that one of the principal causes of this latent and active hostility to the Church is due to the fact that its representatives are so far removed economically and socially from the wage-working classes as to entirely fail to understand their wants, desires, and aspirations; and hence, as a result, when they do speak in our name, they misrepresent us, as they have in this case. This has occurred so frequently and universally that the respect and reverence for the Church held by the working people in the past, has been destroyed to such an extent that the Church itself has become alarmed. With a few exceptions, and upon rare occasions, a suggestion to have a clergyman open or participate in our conventions or mass-meetings would be met with contemptuous ridicule. Tens of thousands of wage-workers who like myself have passed from infancy to manhood within the folds of the Church, and in being forced from it have retained a fervid love for the moral principles taught by the Carpenter of Nazareth, realize not only the wickedness embodied in the acts of the clergy in shutting the workers out of the Fair, but also understand the effect it will have in further alienating the working classes from, and intensifying their hostility toward, the Church. CAR 31.10

“Speaking as we do, with this intimate personal knowledge, we respectfully, but most earnestly, urge congressmen who have been influenced by religious considerations, to undo this ill-advised and injurious act of the Church. CAR 32.1

“Rev. Mr. Martyn, in advocating the closing of the Fair on Sunday, declared that neither literature nor art had any effect whatever upon the moral status of the people. Our reply is that this statement is a libel upon literature and art and a monstrous insult to all scholars and artists, and an absolute denial of the advantages of secular education; whereas we insist that every advance in general knowledge is necessarily an advance in public morals, and that the knowledge of individuals, and hence their moral status, is affected largely by their environment. CAR 32.2

“Place a workingman within the gates of the World’s Fair, bring him in contact with the wonders of nature as there shown, and the marvels of man’s production gathered from the whole world, and in open-eyed wonder he will be lifted out of his ordinary self, all his lowest and basest instincts and habits will be for the time submerged, and deep into his mind and heart will be pressed, as never before, a comprehension of nature’s varied resources, and the limitless ingenuity and power of the human mind, which will ever after be a profitable source of reflection, a subject of conversation, instructive alike to himself and his associates, that must necessarily make him a better man, a more skillful, and hence a more valuable worker and a more useful citizen. CAR 32.3

“These conclusions are reached not from abstract reasoning, but through practical personal experience, and were I a clergyman or an active member of the Church, having the moral welfare of the people at heart, I would consider it an imperative duty not only to open wide the gates of the Fair on Sunday, but to advocate the organization of special means to bring the masses within its intellectual and moral influences on that particular day. CAR 33.1

“In the consideration of the moral side of the subject, I asserted that the influence of a visit to the World’s Fair would make the laboring man a more skillful, and hence a more valuable worker. To the great army of unknown inventors a day in the World’s Fair would be an inspiration of inestimable value, not alone to themselves, but to the nation and to the human race. Again I speak from actual experience, being personally benefited by visits to expositions similar in character to the World’s Fair, but in size and scope comparatively insignificant. CAR 33.2

“Those guarding the industrial and commercial interests of Great Britain and France thoroughly understand this view of the case. In Birmingham, England, where I came from, one of the greatest manufacturing towns in the world, such exhibits on a small scale were permanent institutions. Special delegations of workers were regularly sent to the world’s expositions of London and Paris, and from personal conversation with one of the French workmen delegated to visit the Centennial and the exposition at Vienna, I learned that the French people were equally alert to the importance of this particular matter. CAR 33.3

“I am also advised by one of my associates, actively interested and aiding in this work of opening the gates of the World’s Fair on Sunday, that in Germany, in the industrial towns along the Rhine, the workingmen’s societies regularly sent delegations to both London and Paris to report upon the exhibits relating to their particular trades; and that such visits were so arranged, for economical reasons, that the delegates reached Vienna or Paris on Saturday night or Sunday morning, visited the exposition during Sunday, and departed for home Sunday night and Monday morning. CAR 33.4

“Comparatively few of the workers in the United States have had the advantage of those stimuli to thought and invention, nor have the manufacturing and commerical class as yet reached a full realization of its importance. Hence I press this view of the matter, hoping that it may aid in opening the gates of the World’s Fair on Sunday to the hundreds of thousands of workers in Chicago and its neighboring towns, and to encourage by that privilege the visits of as many wage-workers throughout the nation as may by months of self-denial and sacrifice save sufficient to pay the expenses of a visit to the World’s Fair, such visit being necessarily limited to a few days.” CAR 33.5

Now I return to my own speech, where it was interrupted by the Chairman of the committee. CAR 34.1

Mr. Jones.-Well, very good. I will take it, then, that Congress knew what they were doing. Here is the record of it in the Senate; that is where this part of the legislation began; because the legislation in the House touched only the closing of the government exhibit, and passed the House that way, and said nothing about closing the Fair on Sunday. When it came to the Senate, there this part of the legislation originated. I shall read from the Congressional Record of July 10, 12, and 13, 1892. CAR 34.2

Mr. Durborow.-Well, it is no use to read that here. We are more familiar with that than you are yourself. What we are after is modification of the existing law. CAR 34.3

Mr. Jones.-Certainly. CAR 34.4

Mr. Durborow.-Now if you will argue on the point of the modification of the law, the benefits why this law should be changed and modified in accordance with the resolutions that are before this committee-that is what this committee has these hearings for. CAR 34.5

Mr. Jones.-Well, that is what I am doing. I have given the Constitution as it provides, prohibiting this legislation; and when the Constitution prohibits it, then ought not the legislation to be undone? CAR 34.6

Mr. Durborow.-This is not the place to argue that question. ⁶ CAR 34.7

Mr. Little.-I think you perhaps misunderstand the legislation that has already been taken. I agree with you as to the Constitution. But this legislation makes an appropriation, and accompanies the appropriation with the condition that the Fair should be closed on Sunday. For instance, you have no right to say to a gentleman walking along the street, You shall not go into that saloon; but if you give him $5, you have the right to connect with it the condition that he shall not spend it in the saloon. ⁷ CAR 34.8

Mr. Jones.-I see your point. The argument has been made, and it was made when the legislation was before the Senate, that as Congress was appropriating the money, it had the right to put whatever restrictions it considered proper upon the use of the money. CAR 35.1

Mr. Little.-But they were not forced to take the money. CAR 35.2

Mr. Jones.-Certainly. But I deny that proposition. Congress had the right to put whatever civil restrictions she pleased upon the use of the money; Congress had no right under the Constitution, to put any religious restriction at all upon the use of the money. CAR 35.3

Mr. Little.-Is it a religious restriction? CAR 35.4

Mr. Jones.-Yes, sir; it is religious legislation entirely. CAR 35.5

Mr. Houk.-Do you believe that it would be right for Congress to say that the Fair should be closed one day in seven? CAR 35.6

Mr. Jones.-No, it would not be proper, for it all rests upon religious ground, and that is the only ground upon which Sunday observance or Sunday recognition rests. And the claim that the legislation was in the interests of the workingmen is contrary to the proceedings of the Senate. Senator Hawley said plainly, “Everybody knows what the foundation is; it is founded in religious belief.” Senator Peffer said, “To-day we are engaged in a theological discussion as to the observance of the first day of the week.” So that they considered it as religious, and religious only. Now, I repeat, they had no right under the Constitution, to put any religious restriction upon it. When they put that restriction there, and said that the directors should sign an agreement to close the World’s Fair on Sunday, on the “Christian Sabbath,” as Congress declared Sunday to be, before they could receive any money; they had just as much right to say that the World’s Fair directory should sign an agreement to submit to Christian baptism before they could receive any of the appropriation. CAR 35.7

Voice.-Or try Dr. Briggs. CAR 36.1

Mr. Jones.-Yes. When Congress put upon this appropriation the condition that the directory should sign an agreement to shut that Fair on the “Lord’s day,” as Congress declared Sunday to be, before they could receive any of the money, Congress had just as much right to require that the World’s Fair Committee should observe the Lord’s supper before they could get any of the money. Hence, if Congress can define what the Christian Sabbath is, they can require anything else in the Christian religion. CAR 36.2

Voice.-That is so. CAR 36.3

Voice.-Is not this a Christian nation? CAR 36.4

Mr. Jones.-No, of course not. CAR 36.5

Mr. Jones.-When they go beyond the Constitution in one point for religion’s sake, they can go beyond it on every point. What Congress has done in this respect in favor of Sunday only opens the way to do whatever else may be demanded by those who have secured this. And it will be demanded, for the Christian Statesman, whose editor is in the hall, has said that “the great Christian majority has learned, by response to its great petition, and its host of letters with reference to the World’s Fair, that it can have of national and State governments whatever legislation against immorality it will ask unitedly and earnestly.” And a preacher in Pittsburg, as soon as this bill had passed Congress, declared in a sermon: “That the Church has weight with great political or governing bodies has been demonstrated most effectually in the late World’s Fair matter, when the United States Senate, the highest body in the country, listened to the voice of religion and passed the World’s Fair five million appropriation bill with the Church-instituted proviso that the gates of the great Exposition should not be opened upon Sunday. That grand good fact suggests to the Christian’s mind that if this may be done, so may other equally needful measures. The Church is gaining power continually, and its voice will be heard in the future much oftener than in the past.” CAR 36.6

Voice.-The statement of an individual. CAR 37.1

Mr Jones.-No, not the statement of an individual only; it is representative, because those who secured the legislation, those who presented the petition,—they did it as a grand combination, not as individuals, but as a combination. The National Reform Association, the American Sabbath Union, and the whole combination put together,—they worked for it for religious reasons; they demanded it upon religious grounds only, and did it as religious. The basis of it was declared to be the fourth commandment, when Senator Quay sent up his Bible to the Secretary of the Senate to be read there. Here it is in the Record. Who will deny that the fourth commandment is religious? Who will deny that the fourth commandment as given in the Bible is religious, and that the Bible itself is religious? I appeal to this committee: Has the Congress of the United States a right to put that Bible into its legislation and to make that the basis of legislation in this government?—No, sirs; the Constitution is the basis of legislation by Congress, and not the Bible. And the Constitution has shut religious questions from the consideration of Congress, and therefore has shut the Bible out of legislation by Congress. But the Bible was sent up that day, and this is the record:— CAR 37.2

“Mr. Quay.-On page 122, line 13, after the word ‘act,’ I move to insert:— CAR 38.1

” ‘And that provision has been made by the proper authority for the closing of the Exposition on the Sabbath-day.’ CAR 38.2

“The reasons for the amendment I will send to the desk to be read. The Secretary will have the kindness to read from the Book of Law I send to the desk, the part inclosed in brackets. CAR 38.3

“The Vice-President.-The part indicated will be read. CAR 38.4

“The Secretary read as follows:— CAR 38.5

” ‘Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy.’ “ CAR 38.6

“Mr. Jones.-You know the fourth commandment: I need not read it. CAR 38.7

Voice.-Read it all. CAR 38.8

Mr. Jones.-“Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.” CAR 38.9

Voice.-Is that the seventh day or the first day? CAR 38.10

Mr. Jones.-The commandment says the seventh day, but in the face of this plain declaration of the Lord that the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord, the Senate has put its own interpretation upon that commandment, and has declared that the statement that “the seventh day is the Sabbath” means “the first day of the week, commonly called Sunday.” Thus the Congress of the United States has taken the fourth commandment from the Bible and put it into its legislation, and has put its own interpretation upon that statute. If Congress can interpret the Bible in one point, it can interpret it on every other point. So that when it went beyond the Constitution of this country in this thing, it has put itself and the government in line with all the Church-and-State governments that have ever been, and has assumed to itself to be the interpreter of the Bible for all the people in the land, and for all who come into the land. That is what has been done. CAR 38.11

Mr. Houk.-Your argument is, then, that the quotation of that commandment by Senator Quay, and the insertion of that, incorporates the fourth commandment and the whole Bible into the legislation of this country? CAR 39.1

Mr. Jones.-In principle it does. (Laughter.) Why not? What is to hinder [original illegible]? When they can incorporate one part of the Bible for this occasion, what is to hinder their incorporating every other part of the Bible as other occasions may be presented? And therefore it is true that the incorporation of this part of the Bible here, does, in principle, incorporate the whole. CAR 39.2

Mr. Houk.-That is a kind of general way to get God into the Constitution. CAR 39.3

Mr. Jones.-Exactly. And that is what these are rejoicing at who have wanted all these years to put God into the Constitution. And that is why they say now, “We can have all we want, when we ask unitedly for it.” And this is true. This does give them all they wanted; for when Congress can do that in one point, who will deny its right to do it in any other point? When the principle is once established, the thing is all done. But it did put the fourth commandment there as giving the reason why the Fair should be closed Sunday, and as forming the basis of the legislation upon this question. CAR 39.4

Mr. Durborow.-Now was the reading of the commandment an organic act of the Senate, of Congress, in doing any such thing as that? CAR 39.5

Mr. Jones.-It was the organic act of Congress, because it was an inseparable part of the legislation itself: it was given as the basis of the legislation, and as containing the reasons for it. CAR 39.6

Mr. Houk.-Then anything that a member says incorporates it in the act? CAR 40.1

Mr. Jones.-Oh no, not necessarily. But let us consider how this was brought in. Senator Quay proposed an amendment. The House had passed a bill to close the government exhibit, letting the Fair alone. When it went to the Senate, Senator Quay introduced an amendment to close the whole Fair. His amendment was, “that provision has been made by the proper authority for closing the Exposition on the Sabbath-day.” That was the first step taken in Congress on the subject of closing the Fair, not the government exhibit, but closing the Fair. The Senate took that step, and in the taking of it, the fourth commandment was quoted by him who offered the amendment, and was adopted by the Senate as the basis, and as giving the reasons for the amendment. Now when this commandment was given by him, and read afterward by the secretary from the desk, as the basis of that amendment, and as containing the reasons for the legislation that was in the amendment, and when the Senate adopted that amendment by changing it to the first day of the week and calling it Sunday, and then the House confirmed their decision,—then it is as plain as day that the fourth commandment is put there and embodied in the legislation of the country by the definite act of Congress. CAR 40.2

[The clock struck twelve and the time expired.] CAR 40.3

Mr. Durborow announced that the time had expired, and said, “This will bring the discussion to a close for this day.” CAR 40.4

That closed the hearing for that day. The chairman had shut out the constitutional argument and refused to have that go before the committee. Seeing that this was so done, the American Sabbath Union knew that their cause was safe; and after the hearing was over, they simply stepped outside the door in the entry way, and called a meeting of their Union, and passed a vote of thanks to the Lord for preserving the American Sabbath. They knew that when the constitutional argument was shut out, they had all they wanted. CAR 40.5

The next day Elliott F. Shepard made the opening speech, and note how he started. The only thing that makes a congressman is the Constitution of the United States. He has no authority in this world but such as the Constitution gives him, and he has no right to listen to any argument that would not come within the Constitution. But they shut that out, and now see what they did listen to in the speeches that followed:— CAR 41.1