New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1866-06-30

II That Unsuitable propensity to mind other people
if business which characteriaes New England. an
Q that representative party Of New England. til
. Republican or radical developed itself in the Ne,
Il York legislature during itslast session. in the shap
X Of an imitation Of the Maine LIQUOR law The Tr
q bune, and other papers of similar kind, had bee
calling for such & law foT a number Of years, aut
h finally, set of busy-bodes just suited to the bus
ness, undertook the pleasing task ofegislating fo
r the people of New York on the grave question q
r liquor,drinking. They passed law requiring a
liquor dealers to pay license to the State-absc
f iutely prohibiting the sale of liquor on Sundays
i The consequence was, as might have been ex
/ pected that people who never had thirsted 70
] alcoholic beverages in their lives or 70
wine, or malt liquor, suddenly becam
extremely fond of those articles; got con
yeniently sick in order to obtain them OF
the prohibited day resorted to all sort
Of lodges to deceive the prying agents of thu
: law; and emigrated to New Jersey in immens,
crowds, in order to drink with unconcern, ant
snap their independent fingers at the radieslrid
den city on the other side Of the Hudson. Ii
truth, never was 80 great an amount Of drinking
accomplished in given time, as since the passage
of this excise Law, as it is called As one of the
effects, money in unimagined sums began to poul
nl'o tne treasury. ID iesa Imam three months more
than million dollars was paid for licenses in the
city of New York alone.
Finally, however, the law came before the
courts on question Of conshtuGonality. and.
greatly to the disgust Of the anti.liquor philoso.
pliers, Judge Cardozo of the court Of common
pleas decided it to be unconstitutional. The main
grounds OF his decision are, that the law is repug
haht 10 the provision of The federal Constitution
Pfohloiung the passage Of any law impairing the
oohgatloh OF contracts, and also to the provision
IA tae state Constitution declaring that no citizen
snail De deprived OF his property but by due pro-
eess OIL law
me GROUNDS OF inc decision furnish an amusing
commentary on That peculiar kind of sharpness
winch IS apt to cut both ways, and of that grasp
l.g disposition winch SO often oVeTeaches itself
IHe case was Drought into court on the ground
that the plaintiff had an unexpired license under
sue olu Jaw, Juage CaEaozo holds that this license
Is good until it expires by its own limitation: that
when Holt had paid money for the DriviIepn oc
aeltiBg lini,or and or, +to foi.l - a. ,..1
-. -'-0 -1i-' VI IuAS pIl'ieB6 A"u
iH ~ stoeA when ne expected TO sell under his
Incense, he acquired vested right amounting to a
contract which the State il not AT 1iberty to zio
lot. ~ rt.,.,. $3.50. ~
AU-1' 44s-91-toL' AAs counsel loF
DF Wi T.5f Il zfr.-
saora lou gu, is Il "oAu
,,ra,,oa ~. -, -, --"' ti1o ne# 4a"
the old one.
Damaging as this admission became, they we-c
obliged to make it or desert their clients attn
gether. For if the new law does not annul the old
licenses, the board were trespassers in interfering
with the business which those licenses legalized
But this copeession furnished Judge Cardozo with
the premises from which the uneonsitutionaIity of
the law was an easy deduction. Accepting the
position that the new law does not annuI the old
licenses, it was not difficult for him to show that in
annuling licenses made for valuable consdera-
ton it annulled contracts, and was therefore nm.
constitutional ay1 ,-oi5 Nh A.. -. q, -.
the States to pass any law imnarip pr' t On
ton of contracts '''' oOiiS"-
Ia an article on This spbiact +,o ,o- IA
World makes the following inst and ao v% YIN
marks. ,''' - -'''O"'Hs 1"s' anu Sensible re-