The Sunday Question

For the Germans, Sundays typically included recreation of the Lord’s Day. This is why regulations in the United States were put in place to define the requirements with closing laws. Almost all immigrants (of many different backgrounds) united against regulation for Sundays. Although, many Germans took advantage of free Sunday School lessons to learn English. Mary Sibley’s Sunday School classes were typically filled with German students. Anglo-Americans on the other hand regard sunday’s as “a day of rest, of religious exercise, and of abstinence from labor and public diversions of every kind” (Ritter, 2021). The article also mentions that the German friends also must remember that the United States is one of the more generous countries to foreigners than any other nation. Americans are said to still be jealous people and no one should try to interfere with their independence. Americans are not ready to open theaters on Sunday, replace churches with saloons, or turn New York into a German town. The article says that when German men meet in a public place and talk about their rights, Americans are annoyed.

The article that I found talks about how in the Missouri Legislature, the sale of beer and wine being allowed on Sundays was in question. The protection of the sabbath was a union of church and state, which is why the proposed law was being questioned. Though it is obvious the author is in favor of Sunday laws, including a section telling immigrants not to come here if they would have a problem with the law, he does talk about the two different sides of the story. He mentions the people who support it and do not support it, as well as their reasonings. In summary, the article talked about the two sides, the representatives defending the Sunday laws, saying immigrants need to learn to like the law, or the representatives who said that the Sunday laws were political and not religious-based. There was more information on the side supporting Sunday laws, but the author did mention the other side’s arguments to the law as well.

Article Source:

“Triumph of the Sabbath.” Newspaper Article, March 26, 1859. SHSMO. https://shsmo.newspapers.com/image/746872107/?terms=sabbath&match=1&clipping_id=119114826

Other Sources:

“Inventing America’s First Immigration Crisis.” Article, 2021. Fordham University Press. https://umsystem.instructure.com/courses/143471/files/16178147?module_item_id=5798373

“Harper’s Weekly.” Newspaper article, September 24, 1859. https://umsystem.instructure.com/courses/143471/files/16178146?module_item_id=5798374