BLUE LAWS, a term generally applied to any laws which impose vexatious restrictions and interfere with the ordinary life of a com munity, or which seek to regulate the morals of the members of the community; the name is especially applied to the early enact ments of several of the New England colonies, but more frequently limited to the laws of New Haven colony. The origin of the term is not exactly known. Various conjectures have been made, but the most probable derivation is that given by Professor Kingsley, who thinks the epithet "blue' was applied to any one who im mediately after the Restoration of the Stuarts looked with disapprobation on the licentiousness of the times. Thus, in Itudibras, For his religion, it was fit To match his learning and his wit; 'Twits Presbyterian true bliss.
That this epithet should find its way to the colonies was a matter of course. It was here applied not only to persons, but to the customs, institutions and laws of the Puritans, by those who wished to render the prevailing system ridiculous. Hence, probably, a belief with some that a distinct system of laws, known as the blue laws, must somewhere have had a local habitation. The existence of such a code of blue laws is fully disproved. The only author ity in its favor is Rev. Samuel Peters, whose 'General History of Connecticut' (1781) is a spiteful, satirical work, full of exaggerations. The traditions upon this subject, from which Peters framed his stories, undoubtedly arose from the fact that the early settlers of New Haven were uncommonly strict in their applica tion of the "general rules of righteousness?' Judge Smith, in his continuation of the history of New York, published in New York Histori cal Collections' (Vol. IV), gives evidence against the existence of the blue laws, which• is particularly valuable, as it was put on record some 15 years before Peters' history was pub lished. He writes: there are who speak of the blue laws (a title of the origin of which the author is ignorant), who do not imagine they form a code of rules drawn up for future conduct, by an enthusiastic, precise of re ligionists; and if the inventions of wits, humor ists, and buffoons were to be credited, they must consist of many large volumes. The
author had the curiosity to resort to them when the commissioners met at New Haven for ad a partition line between New York and assachusetts in 1767; and a parchment cov ered book of demi-royal paper was handed him for the laws asked for, as the only volume in the office passing under this odd title. It con tains the memorials of the first establishment of the colony, which consisted of persons who had wandered beyond the limits of the old charter of Massachusetts Bay, and who, as yet unau thorized by the Crown to set up any civil gov ernment in due form of law, resolved to con duct themselves by the Bible. As a necessary consequence, the judges they chose took an authority which every religious man exercises over his own children and domestics. Hence their attention to the morals of the people in instances with which the civil magistrate can never intermeddle in a regular well-policied constitution, because to preserve liberty they are recognizable only by parental authority.* Recent investigations, however, show that while many of the 45 statutes cited by Peters were not on the books of the New Haven colony, all except two or three are to be found, with slight modifications, among the codes of the various New England colonies. Consult Trum bull, J. H., 'True Blue Laws of Connecticut and New Haven, and the False Blue Laws In vented by Rev. Samuel Peters' (Hartford 1876) ; Prince, An Examination of Peters' Blue Laws,' in Annual Report of the Ameri can Historical Association for 1898.