Par. 4. Trade
Next to agriculture and the various crafts, trade shall be one of the chief sources of sustenance. However, care shall be taken that it does not pass through too many hands in order to avoid the raising of prices and the adulteration of wares. Too extensive and too hazardous commercial speculations are urgently to be warned against.
Par. 5. Monopolies
Brewing on a large scale, manufacture of spirits, milling, the manufacture of bricks, and tanning on a large scale remain communal matters provisionally and for the first years. These five crafts shall be carried on by persons responsible to the community, and the products they put out shall be sold for the benefit of the community in order to cover a part of the common expenses with the resulting profit.
Par. 6. Hired Help
As soon as possible a fair scale of wages for hired help shall be fixed in accordance with conditions in the country. This hired work may not last more than eight hours a day. The community council shall exercise supervision so that unhealthful or excessive work is not demanded.
Par. 7. The Poor and Beggars
The poor who are no longer able to work will be taken under the protection of the church, and through its mediation they will receive the necessary care from the community. As soon as possible, a poorhouse shall be erected. Beggars who are capable of working are absolutely not to be tolerated.
CHAPTER IV. POLICE ORDINANCES
Par. 1. Prohibition of Theaters and Dance Halls
Theaters and dance halls may never be constructed.
Par. 2. Forbidden Games
Lotteries, all games of chance, and cardplaying are summarily forbidden. On the other hand, the following are permitted: Billiards, bowling, draughts, pigeon shooting, and shooting sports.
Par. 3. Prevention of Excesses
All cursing, the use of shameful words, as well as uncharitable taunting and ridicule, are emphatically forbidden in order to prevent, as far as possible, angry disputes and excesses.
Par. 4. Regulations for Clothing
Regulations shall be established for clothing. In order to prevent extravagance, a maximum shall be set for prices on clothing, which may not be exceeded. All clothing which is injurious to health and is against Christian decency is forbidden. Corsets and their equivalents, such as dresses stiffened in the upper part with whalebone, are entirely forbidden to the women, as especially harmful to their health.
Par. 5. Penalties
Definite penalties for transgressions of the regulations in the preceding Pars. 1 to 4 are to be made public. They are to consist in admonition, in fines, and if deemed advisable, expulsion from the community.
CODE FOR THE CIVIL COMMUNITY
Par. 1. Citizens and Associates
The members of the community fall into two classes, citizens and associates.
A citizen is he who has been accepted as a permanent member of the community and is in full possession of the rights of the community, particularly the right of acquiring permanent possession of land and property within the limits of the city. The extent to which the exercise of these rights is conditional is stated in this code.
An associate is he who is accepted as a member of the community for only a stipulated length of time, or upon recall, under conditions stated in the letters patent to be issued to him. An associate shall be excluded from all participation in the administration of the community but shall contribute toward the public obligations and expenditures as well as the citizens, since he also enjoys the advantages of association with the community.
Par. 2. Admission of Citizens and Associates
Whether a person is to be admitted as a citizen or as an associate depends upon the free judgment of the community.
For admission as a citizen, however, it is requisite by all means that the prospective member present a recommendation from the primate or his representative in which his [the applicant’s] orthodoxy and Christian integrity is attested. As a testimony of his admission he receives a certificate of citizenship.
For admission as an associate, a simple permit issued by the primate or his representative is sufficient. Upon admission he [the associate] shall receive letters patent.
Par. 3. Community Administration—Community Council— Electoral Franchise
The citizens shall elect from their midst a community council, which is to attend to all public affairs of the community. In this the council is to be guided:
by God’s Word;
by the laws of the United States and in particular of that State in which the Gesellschaft will settle;
by this code and the amendments to be made to it from time to time;
by the council’s code, which is to be drawn up by the council and approved by the community.
In order to take part in the election of a council, as well as to be eligible for election to the council himself, it shall be required in this as in all other elections that a citizen have reached the age of twenty-five years and have not been excluded from participation in the Lord’s Supper by the church.
Par. 4. Council Code
The community council shall consist, for the first, of nine persons, inclusive of its first member, the mayor. Immediately after their election and induction into office they shall draw up the afore-mentioned council code and submit it to the voting citizens for examination and ratification.
Par. 5. Election Procedure—Inauguration of the Council
The first election of the council by the community shall take place under the direction of the primate. All future elections shall be under the direction of a committee of the council. On the occasion of each election everyone entitled to the vote shall present his certificate of citizenship to the election committee, for without it he will not be permitted to vote. In the first election, however, by way of exception, this will not be necessary, for at that time the division of the community into citizens and associates cannot yet have been completed.
The council should always be inducted, i.e., installed, in its office and calling by a deputy of the clergy in the presence of the assembly of voting citizens.
Par. 6. Length of the Term for which the Council Is Elected
A new council shall be elected every three years. All members of the retiring council may be re-elected. A member of the council who is, during his term of office, formally excluded by the church from partaking of the Lord’s Supper, must forthwith resign his position, and a new member shall be elected to the council for the balance of the term.
Par. 7. Participation of the Voting Citizens in the Administration of the Community
The voting citizens shall represent the community in all respects. Concerning all taxes (and in fact concerning all receipts and expenditures of the community which become necessary from year to year) the council shall draw up an estimate annually and submit it to the citizens’ assembly—that is, the assembly of enfranchised citizens—for examination and approval. In this as well as in all citizens’ assemblies the mayor shall preside, but have no right to vote, except in the case of a tie, when it is his prerogative to cast the deciding vote. The calling of this assembly is likewise a function of the mayor.
The council is furthermore required to render account of its administration annually before the citizens’ assembly and to receive from it the sanction of its [the council’s] administration for its justification. Also, at these assemblies all such matters shall be brought up for discussion in which the council considers it desirable to obtain the opinion of the citizenry. Citizens and associates shall be admitted by the council subject to approval by the citizens’ assembly.
Finally, amendments to this code can be made only by common consent of the council and the citizens’ assembly.
Par. 8. Chamber of Guardianship (Guardianship Office?)
The education of fatherless orphans shall be supervised by the church. The clergyman who has been commissioned for this shall, however, have a member of the council assigned to him for keeping records and accounts. Thi
s clergyman and the council member together shall constitute the guardianship office, which shall procure the guardians and exercise supervision over them. Also the guardians for other persons requiring guardianship, such as the absent, the feeble-minded, the infirm, shall be procured and supervised by the guardianship office.
The guardianship office shall draw up guardianship regulations, get the opinion of the council and of the citizens’ assembly, but thereafter shall present them to the church for its sanction. After this sanction on the part of the church has been given, these guardianship regulations have the force of law.
Par. 9. Chamber of Justice—Court of Appeal
A committee of the council shall pass judgment as a chamber of justice or a municipal court in all legal disputes and crimes that may occur, which God forbid. From decisions of the municipal court appeal may be taken to the council, and likewise complaint may be made to the council concerning the chamber of justice. The decision of the council is final. All verdicts are to be executed by the chamber of justice. The court of appeal as well as the chamber of justice shall make public from year to year the rules of procedure and judgment, the judicial code. This judicial code must be drawn up by the court of appeal and the chamber of justice according to the Word of God, also taking into consideration the laws of the land, and must then be discussed, approved, and confirmed by the council in its official capacity and by the citizens’ assembly. To this discussion, approval, and confirmation the court of appeal and the chamber of justice are to refer for justification in their publication [of the judicial code].
In cases in which the judicial code or other existing laws are not adequate, the Word of God shall be applied, taking into account also the laws of the land, instead of applying the laws directly as a basis of judgment.
In order that God’s Word may in no case be interpreted or applied falsely, the opinion of the ministerium shall be sought for instruction, both in the drafting of the judicial code and in those cases in which the Word of God is applied directly in rendering a decision.
In any event, it must be stipulated in the judicial code that, before the beginning of actual judicial procedure, an attempt shall have been made at reconciliation, notice of which shall have been given to the ministerium, in order that it may, if it sees fit, deputize a clergyman to guide the attempted mediation.
The stipulations regarding the relationship between the community courts and the courts of the State, which will be necessary in criminal cases and in litigation between members of the community and nonmembers, will temporarily have to be held in abeyance.
Par.10. Scope of the Council’s Jurisdiction
The jurisdiction of the council, i.e., its right to govern, and the judicial competence of the council, as well as of the community courts (guardianship office, the chamber of justice, the court of appeal, etc.), extend over the entire territory of the city and all inhabitants thereof. Excepted, however, are the plots of ground which have been ceded to the church and school, and likewise, as far as persons are concerned, the servants of God’s Word, candidates of the ministry, seminary students, and teachers and pupils at higher and elementary schools. Over these persons and areas the church has exclusive jurisdiction.
Par. 11. Books of Trade and Account
As long as the Credit Fund exists, books of trade and account are to be kept by the Credit Fund. After the latter is liquidated, they are to be transferred to the council.
Par. 12. Secretary of the Council (City Clerk) Chamberlain (City Treasurer)
The council shall appoint a secretary for keeping legal records and minutes, and a chamberlain for keeping the accounts and conducting the financial affairs. Both shall be paid from the community treasury, and shall hold office subject to a one-year notice of dismissal. Depending upon circumstances, both may be given salaried assistants.
Par. 13. Literary Board
The right of freedom of the press may not be restricted in any way. However, the printing offices which will be founded shall be required to submit a copy of every item of printed matter to the literary board before circulation. This board shall consist of a committee from the ministerium and a committee from the council. Each of these two committees shall have the right to confiscate printed matter as soon as it is directed against the existing constitutions of the church and the community, against the old Lutheran confession of faith, and against genuinely Christian morals. One who has in mind doing something of that kind can, of course, not be prevented from having it printed outside of the city limits, but the community cannot become partner to such action by consenting.
As soon as a printed item has been confiscated, it may not be circulated, but is rather to be placed under the seal of the literary board.
The persons involved are not prohibited from bringing suit in the court having jurisdiction (against the ecclesiastical committee before the ecclesiastical court, against the members of the council’s committee before the secular courts), and these courts are to assess damages against the defendants if they do not adequately justify their action, to the extent of the damages from such action incurred by the persons involved.
The literary board is to draft a set of regulations which shall have the force of law, if accepted on the one hand by the church and on the other by the council and the assembly of citizens.
Par. 14. Regulations
The relationship of the entire community, and especially of the council (as well as that of corporations within the community, e.g., the Credit Fund), to the church shall be determined by regulations that will be established in the nature of a contract.
Par. 15. Withdrawal and Expulsion from the Community
During the first five years after that day on which settlement has been effected, no one may sever his connections with the community Gesellschaft by withdrawal. If he does so, all his property is impounded as collateral for all community expenses which are to be met until the expiration of the five years.
In the same manner, the property of the person who is expelled against his own will remains impounded.
After the expiration of the five years the [period of] impounding is restricted to the duration of the current fiscal year, unless there are special obligations for a further impounding.
Whoever has been excluded by the church from all means of grace and all Christian association ceases to be a member of the community, whether he be citizen or associate, and must leave the city limits.
Par. 16. Revision
This present code shall be revised by the council and the assembly of the citizens triennially. However, in exceptional cases an extraordinary revision may take place sooner, upon proposal by two thirds of the council and of the assembly of citizens.
Appendix E
Martin Stephan’s Investiture as Bishop on Board the Olbers, January 14, 1839
Worthy sir, Beloved Father in Christ:
You, worthy Sir, according to God’s wise counsel of grace were the only one who stood as the last immovable pillar on the rubble of the destroyed Lutheran Church in Germany and all of those would cling to you who by the grace of the Lord were still earnestly seeking for the right way of salvation, the true Church and its sacred confessions. Among those were also five servants of the Holy Word by whom you were loved and honored in all of those important matters that concerned their own welfare and that of their congregations. They would come to you for advice and decisions. Through all of this you had already for a long time fulfilled the function and the effectiveness of a Bishop. This became even more visible since the plan, according to God’s Word, of transplanting the Lutheran Church from Germany to the United States of America has been implemented. You were approved and accepted as our father, the main caretaker of our souls and our leader by all congregations and all parishioners; without having the title of a Bishop you performed the function and office of a Bishop among us with fatherly gentleness, steadfastness, justice, correctness and wisdom.
Now as you are setting your feet on American soil,
it becomes urgently necessary that we give your silent election also an open and public manifestation. We have been often taught by you and from this teaching has grown our abiding conviction that the episcopal office, according to the Word of God, the apostolic Church and all symbolic writings is absolutely necessary for the true and permanent welfare of the church of Christ and a constitution which provides that a smaller or greater number of pastors are subordinated to the Bishop as part of church leadership. This group, under the leadership of the Bishop and together with the Bishop, would form a council. This is our common, appropriate and serious request. We are also of the conviction that this can only be achieved through a free episcopal constitution as it is expressed in paragraph 2 of our Emigration Rules.
As a result of the foregoing we approach you with a respectful but urgent wish: Please take from this that we express to you by the title our unwavering and pastoral faithfulness toward us and we pledge our honest and complete childlike obedience to you.
In Pursuit of Religious Freedom: Bishop Martin Stephan's Journey Page 37
