At breakfast I read from the _New York Independent_ that
"Rum, profaneness and Sabbath breaking always go together." The editor
was "sorry to find that the stockholders of the Saratoga railroad still
run their cars upon the Sabbath. It is an odious and monstrous
violation, not only of the laws of God, but of all the decencies of
Christian society. And yet I had noticed ladies traveling in them,
thundering into Saratoga on the Lord's Day. Women traveling in a public
conveyance on the Sabbath. There is something in this peculiarly
degrading and shameful. It ought to be only the lowest of the sex that
would stoop to such debasement." And another paper said: "We are sorry
to learn that the directors have established an accommodation train for
Sunday morning between this city and Poughkeepsie, in addition to the
mail train to Albany. Mr. James Boorman, through whose efficient service
as President the road was mainly built, has resigned his office as
director and has addressed a firm remonstrance to the Board against this
impiety."
This was the time in which Douglas was now working. Every one knew what
the law of God was. Every one appealed to the Bible as God's word. For
much of this Douglas had perfect contempt; and he was quick to sense a
taint of it in Seward, or any one whom it had infected.
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