Blue Laws

[Baker, John]

        The origin of the term "blue laws" has been in question for some time. I join J. Hammond Trumbull, editor of The True-Blue Laws of Connecticut and New Haven and the False Blue Laws Forged by Peters (1876), at http://www.quinnipiac.edu/other/abl/etext/trueblue/bluelaws.html, in supposing that the term derives straightforwardly from "blue" in the sense of "puritanic" or "strict in morals or religion."  However, the theory that the original blue laws were printed on blue paper seems to be an old one.  From the debate on adoption of the federal constitution in the Virginia convention, June 23, 1788:

        <<Mr. NICHOLAS observed, I mean what I say, sir.  But we are told of _the blue laws_ of Massachusetts:  are these to be brought in debate here?  Sir, when the gentleman mentioned them the day before yesterday, I did not well understand what he meant; but from inquiry, I find, sir, they were laws made for the purpose of preserving the morals of the people, and took the name of _blue_ laws from being written on blue paper.>>

The Debates in the Several State Conventions, on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution, Vol. III, at 581 (J. Elliot 2d ed. 1861), http://name.umdl.umich.edu/ahm4021.

John Baker