blue laws

Dictionary of American Words And Phrases by John Russell Bartlett.

"Where, and how, the story of the New Haven Blue Laws originated, is a matter of some curiosity. According to Dr. Peters, the epithet blue was applied to the laws of New Haven, by the neighboring colonies, because these laws were thought peculiarly sanguinary: and he says, that blue is equivalent to bloody. It is a sufficient refutation of this account of the matter, to say, that if there was any distinction between the colony of New Haven, and the other united Colonies of New England, in the severity of their punishments, New Haven was the last of the number to gain this bad pre-eminence. Others have said, that certain laws of New Haven, of a more private and domestic kind, were bound in a blue cover; and hence the name. This explanation has as little probability as the preceding, for its support. It is well known, that on the restoration of Charles II. the Puritans became the subject of every kind of reproach and contumely. Not only what was deserving of censure in their deportment, but their morality was especially held up to scorn. The epithet blue was applied to any one, who looked with disapprobation on the licentiousness of the times. The Presbyterians, under which name all dissenters were often included, as they still dared to be the advocates of decency, were more particularly designated by this term; their religion and their morality being marked by it as mean and contemptible. Thus Butler:


For his religion, it was fit

To match his learning and his wit;

'Twas Presbyterian true blue.

Hudib. Canto I.

"That this epithet of derision should find its way to the colonies was a matter of course. It was here applied not only to persons, but to 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 have somewhere a local habitation."--Prof Kingsley's Hist. Disc.

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