The Democratic sentinel and Harrison County farmer. [volume] (Cadiz, Ohio) 1851-1852, 1852-04-21
The Liquor Indictments.

tile COunly, lOr retailing spurious III
quors, all of which were quashed
by the Court, aud as wrong impress
siOns have gone abroad as TO what
was the cause OF this action Of the
court, we deem it important to cor
rect the error.
Many persons suppose, and we
have heard it so stated, that the court
held the law prohibiting the sale of
spurious Liquors, unconstitutional,
and also, so loose in its provisions
as to be void for uncertainty. This
is a mistake. The motions were
made to quash the Indicmonts, for
various reasons. amongst which was
that they were so unskiliulIy drawn,
as to not charge the defend enls
with any offence under the statute
Ills Honor Judge Jewett in deIiy-
ering the opinion Of the court, said
that the court could not help seeing
that those persons who had been
Indicted had dbeen wiIfuliyandknow
ingly violating the law, and that the
court hadfclt anxious tosus,ain thUse
indictments If it could be done with
out departing from the seuIcd rules
! of law, but that the court WAS itsell
merely die creature oi the Law, and
the Judge was not permitted to rC-
gard hls own private wishes CT fec
IIngs in the matter AT all, bur must be
governed by the wen settled rules
Of iaY, IN deciding the Legal quos-
tons presented IN the case. Ina,
the court had found no difficulty il
coming to the cOncluSinn to sustain
the Law, prohibiting the retailing OF
spurious. Liquors, and holding, tina
it was neither unconstitutional, no1
void for uncertainty, but that those
Indictments, not being SO drawn a>
10 properly charge the persons In
diced, with having committed an,
! offence, the motions to quash mus
be sustained. In this opinion judge
| Alexander c0ncurred.
Thus were the whole of those
indictments quashed. And wha
are the consequences? In the frs
place, the Sheriffloses all ofhis cost.
which, it is said, amount to abou
one hundred and thirty dollars
and which he very dearly earned il
riding during the very wet and mud
time just previous to, and during th'
session of the court, all over tn,
county to subpoena the witnesses Il
appear before the Grand Jury ant
for the trial Of those cases in court
The Clerk also loses his fees in thos
cases, amounting probably to fift
dollars. But although the Count
pays no sherilf's or Clerks fees il
misrepresentation where the Stat
fails, yet the fees and mileage of tn
Witnesses must be paid out of tn
County 'i'reasury-that great poke
: OF the People, into which every one
who can get a,chance, thinks him
self at liberty to DIVE. AS the wit
nesses IN those cases were numor
Gus, and most ofthem attended fou
or five days, their fees cannot fa
short OF two hundred and fifty dol
lars.
:, Thus taxpayers ofI Harrison Coun
ty, IS your money wasted i'll conse
quoncc OF having a prosecuting At
tarnoy who seems to incapable 0
drawing the simplest form of lndict
ment correctly.
4 few more such blunders, ant
your Treasury will be empty, you
sheriff and Clerk will be ruined o
forced to resign, and their office
will go begging. Here We're abon
thirty persons Indicted, who wer,
all ciearlyguilty ofviolating the Law
and who were all good for their fine
and all the costs; and their fine,
Gas SSl5 is the lowest fine that coult
have been imposed) would have
amounted to at least four hundred
and fifty dollars. Had the lndict
ments therefore, been properly
drawn. the yiolators Of the Law
would have been punished, and thu
above, large sum Of money woulC
have come into your Treasury, bu
the Indictments were bad-the gull
ty have gone quit of punishment
aid from two to three hundred dol
lars have been worse than useIessl,
expended out Of the County treas
Ery-tax-payers, You and US, an'
"the rest of mankind" will have t,
grin and bear it, till we become wis
enough to elect some man Prose
: cutting Attorney who possesses sui
ficient legal ability to draw an In