Maine:
The Way Life
Used to Be
By: David Deschesne
Editor/Publisher, Fort Fairfield Journal
October 7, 2020
Maine is celebrating its 200th anniversary of statehood this year. You wouldn’t know it, though, since COVID-19 has dominated the media and the public psyche.
In looking back in time, we can notice how much the State has changed over the past two centuries.
I recently examined the two volume book set The Laws of Maine from 1821 (two books! Today it’s over forty!). I found some pretty interesting laws that show how far we’ve progressed from those that were enacted after we first became a State. Some might say we’ve “regressed” as a society. Those laws and punishments are as follows. I’ve noted the estimated dollar values for the fines in today’s currency in parentheses. Also note for abortion, rape and arson, the penalty was death. If we still enforced the blasphemy, adultery and fornication laws, most of the population of Maine would now have spent a degree of time in prison - or would still be in prison.
Blasphemy
If any person shall willfully blaspheme the holy name of God, by denying, cursing, or contumeliously reproaching God, his creation, government, or final judgment of the world, or by cursing, or reproaching Jesus Christ, or the Holy Ghost, or by cursing or contumeliously reproaching the holy word of God, that is, the canonical scriptures, contained in the Books of the Old and New Testament, or by exposing them, or any part of them, to contempt and ridicule, shall be punished by solitary imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months, and confinement to hard labor, for a term not exceeding five years. And whereas the horrible practice of profane cursing and swearing is inconsistent with the dignity and rational cultivation of the human mind, with a due reverence of the Supreme Being and his Providence, and hath a natural tendency to weaken the solemnity and obligation of oaths, lawfully taken in the administration of justice; to promote falsehood, perjury, blasphemy, and dissoluteness of manners, and to loosen the bonds of civil society: Be it therefore enacted that if any person, who has arrived at the age of discretion shall profanely curse or swear, and shall be thereof convicted, such person, so offending, shall forfeit and pay a sum not exceeding two dollars, nor less than one dollar, according to the aggravation of the office. (In today’s money, the fine would be around $25 - $50).
-Laws of Maine 1821, Chapter VIII, Sec. 1-2.
The Lord’s Day
(note: the law did not define which day was the “Lord’s Day” - the Jewish observe on Saturday, Christians on Sunday (Seventh Day Adventists also observe the Lord’s Day on Saturday, but that religious group wasn’t in existence when this law was written). The law simply defined it as “the midnight preceding and the sun setting of the same day”; presumably it was Sunday, given the Christian majority in the area at the time)
No traveler, drover, waggoner, teamster, or any of their servants, shall travel on the Lord’s Day, or any part thereof (except from necessity or charity) under penalty of not less than four dollars ($100 today), nor more than six dollars and sixty cents…
Be it further enacted, That no person or persons whatsoever shall keep open his, her, or their shop, warehouse, or workhouse, nor shall, upon land or water, do any manner of labour, business, or work, (works of necessity and charity only excepted) nor be present at any concert of music, dancing or any public diversion, show or entertainment, nor use any sport, game, play, or recreation, on the Lord’s day, or any part thereof under penalty of a sum not exceeding six dollars and sixty cents, nor less than four dollars for each offense ($100 to $150 in today’s money)…
Be it further enacted, That no person shall be present at any concert of music, dancing or other public diversion, nor shall any person or persons use any game, sport, play or recreation, on the land or water, on the evening next preceding or succeeding the Lord’s day [editor: that is, before the Lord’s Day or the evening of the Lord’s Day, after sunset], on pain of three dollars and thirty-three cents for each offence. ($75.00)
Laws of Maine, 1821 Chapter IX, Sections 1-5
Adultery/Lewd Behavior
If any man or woman shall commit adultery, and be thereof convicted, he or she shall be punished by solitary imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months, and confinement to hard labour for a term not exceeding five years. Be it further enacted, That if any man and woman, either or both of whom being then married, shall lewdly and lasciviously associate and cohabit together, or if any man or woman, married or unmarried, shall be guilty of open gross lewdness and lascivious behaviour, and shall be thereof convicted before the Justices of the Supreme Judicial Court, they shall be punished by solitary imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months, and confinement to hard labour for a term, not exceeding five years.
Laws of Maine 1821, Chapter X, Sections 1-3.
Fornication
[note: fornication is sexual relations between two people who are not married to each other]
If any man shall commit fornication with any single woman, the man or woman so offending and being thereof convicted before the Circuit Court of Common Pleas, shall be punished by imprisonment in the common gaol [jail] for a term not less than ten days, nor more than sixty days; or shall be sentenced to pay a fine not less than twenty dollars ($500 in today’s money), nor more than one hundred dollars ($2,000 in today’s money), as the Court may direct.
Laws of Maine 1821, Chapter X. Section 4.
Abortion
If any woman shall endeavor privately, either by herself, or the procurement of others, to conceal the death of any such issue of their body, which, if it were born alive, would by law be a bastard, so that it may not come to light, whether it were born alive or not, or whether it was murdered, or not, in every such case, the mother, so offending, shall be punished by solitary imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months, and confinement to hard labour for a term not exceeding five years, at the discretion of the Court. Be it further enacted, That if the Grand Jury shall, in the same indictment, charge any woman with the willful murder of her infant bastard child, as well as with either or both the offences aforesaid, and it appear to the Jury of trials that she is guilty of the murder charged, she shall be thereupon convicted of murder, and suffer the pains of death as in the case of murder…
Laws of Maine 1821, Vol. 1, Chapter II, Sections 9-11.
Homosexuality/Bestiality
If any man shall commit the crime against nature with a man or male child, or any man or woman shall have carnal copulation with a beast, every such offender, being duly convicted thereof in the Supreme Judicial Court, shall be punished by solitary imprisonment, for such term, not exceeding one year, and by confinement afterwards to hard labour for such term, not exceeding ten years, as the Justices of said Court, before whom the conviction may be shall sentence and order.
Laws of Maine 1821. Vol. 1, Chapter V.
Rape
If any man shall ravish, and carnally know any woman, by force, and against her will, or shall unlawfully and carnally know and abuse any woman child under the age of ten years, every such offender, and any person present, aiding and consenting to such rape, or accessory thereto before the fact, by counseling, procuring or commanding such rape to be committed, who shall be duly convicted in the Supreme Judicial Court, of either of the felonies and offences aforesaid, shall suffer the punishment of death.
Laws of Maine 1821, Vol. 1 Chapter III, Section 1.
Arson
If any person shall willfully and maliciously set fire to the dwelling house of another, or to any out building, adjoining to such dwelling-house, and to any other building, and by the kindling of such fire or by the burning of such other building, such dwelling house shall be burnt in the night time, every such offender, and any person present, aiding, abetting or consenting, in the commission of such offence, or accessory thereto, before the fact, by counseling, hiring, or procuring the same to be done, who shall be duly convicted before the Supreme Judicial Court of either of the felonies and offences aforesaid, shall suffer the punishment of death.
Laws of Maine 1821 Vol 1. Chapter IV, Section 1.
Riots/Unlawful Assemblies
If any number of persons of twelve or more shall be unlawfully, riotously, or tumultuously assembeled, and shall not immediately disperse themselves, after having been by any Sheriff, Deputy Sheriff or Justice of the Peace of any County, or any Constable of any Town, commanded so to do, in the name of this State, each and every person of such assembly shall be punished by solitary imprisonment, not exceeding one year, and afterwards be confined to hard labour for a term, not exceeding one year, or fined in a sum, not exceeding five hundred dollars ($12,500 in today’s money), to the use of this State.
Laws of Maine 1821 Vol. 1, Chapter XVII, Section 1.
Militia
Each and every free, able bodied, white male citizen of the respective States, resident therein, who is or shall be of the age of eighteen years, and under the age of forty five years, (except as herein after excepted), shall severally and respectively be enrolled in the Militia, by the Captain or commanding officer of the company, within whose bounds such citizens shall reside.
Laws of Maine 1821 Vol. II Chapter CLXIV, sec. 1.
[note: this law is still in effect today in Maine and the Militia is now called the “Maine State Guard,” This is not the “National Guard” which is a creation of the federal government.]
Property Tax Foreclosures
[Note: lots of legal speak in this section. Condensed down, it essentially states that on unimproved lands (no buildings) the town can only seize and sell to satisfy back taxes owed the amount of land necessary to pay the taxes - not all of the land entirely. For Real Estate that has buildings and improvements that cannot be divided up, the town may seize the only enough of the property to pay the back taxes - not the entire property. If those portions that can’t be divided up are sold, the original owner has two years in which he can redeem (buy back) the land from the new owner]
Laws of Maine 1821 Vol II, Chapter CXVI, Sections 30 - 31.
Welfare Benefits
Overseers of the Poor shall have the care and oversight of all such poor and indigent persons, so settled in their respective towns, and shall see that they are suitably relieved, supported and employed, either in the work house or other tenements belonging to such towns, or in such other way and manner as they at any legal meeting shall direct; or otherwise at the discretion of said Overseers, at the cost of the town...That said Overseers be and they are hereby empowered, from time to time to bind out by deed indented or poll, as apprentices, to be instructed and employed in any lawful art, trade, or mystery, or as servants to be employed in any lawful work or labour, any male or female children, whose parents become actually chargeable to their town, also whose parents shall be thought by said Overseers to be unable to maintain them until they come of age of eighteen years or are married.
[Translation: You had to work to receive your welfare benefits and if you couldn’t, then your children would have to work to pay your welfare benefits until they were 18 or married.]
Laws of Maine 1821 Vol. II Chapter CXXII, Section 5.
