[jwalsh07]

And yet the same man voted to making breaking the Sabbath against the law as a member of the Virginia Legislature.

The only way to square Jefferson is to understand that his actions on behalf of the federal government and those of the state of Virginia were different.

[Robert_Paulson2]

well then you answered your own question about jefferson. States rights went out the window with lincoln and the civil war. Whatever he said about or thought about state's rights, are pretty much "gone with the wind."

And they will never return again.
Whatever the feds rule, will be the law. Love it or hate it, it's all we have.

[Torie]

I am not sure that one voting to avoid "breaking" the Sabbath, whatever that entailed at the time but I assume the curbing of commerce, has to do with the establishment of a religion (and establishment by the common usage then meant a religion - few felt they were separated from God back them - after all, Darwin was yet to stride this Earth). Maybe Jefferson thought that one day a week should be reserved for reflection and contemplation, and one's family. Granted, it sounds, and is, quaint, by the standards of the modern public square, but whatever.