American citizen. [volume] (Butler, Butler County, Pa.) 1863-1872, 1867-11-06
THsfsn1onstFa6ses we're presented maiary

great force urged npon the Court the
evil effects of license, not only upon the
community, but also upon he-keepers of
these places themseive; calling up4stri.
king instances where families, once re-
spectacle and affiuent, hid gone down to
drunkards' graves, &c. Surely the Res
publican party was not responsible for
ithise But say our weak. kneed neighbors,
the Judges are Republicans |. What if
they are 7 They were net elected to
carry out any party measures. The Jug
dietary never has. and I trust never will,
be the representative of party opinion or
party measures. Its duty,is to admins.
ter the law upon the facts brought to-
their knowledge. Judge Taney deviated
from this rule to serve psrty, as did also
Judges Woodward and Sharsvood. But
| hope, for the honor of this important
branch of our Government, their ex-.
amples will not be, followed. I must
confess to a great contempt for the Court
whose rulings have ever observed
the Influence of party. .sar"a so hara
1t was true, as your correspondents.
showed, that the law passed BY our last
Legislature was used by the Democracy
as campaign' document, and rs such
dropped ct the door Of each of our hotels
and restaurants, This va. 4 poor com.
Plimept to their, intelligence, however,
ss they should all have known that We
are indebted to the Democratic party for
our present stringent laws on the whiss
key traffic Senator Brown, of Philadel.
phia, and Senator Buckalew, now Dema,
cratic Senator of the u aited States, were
two OF the pioneers on this subject. The
Law Of last winter ID little else than a re :.
prod pction of the, old laws on the same
subject and was possibly brought forth
by some one seeking a little noiOriety
AT any rate, laws as severe can be pro-
ducsd with the names of Governors
Bigler and Packer respectively attached
Having thus iupsrtially examined this
subject, ,rdo we find any evidence that this
question had anything to do with our
late election ! Certainly not, that.I can
see. II rrn a3r 7a agr2 3l 55,5
IL is o. fact, rsrhaps net generally
known, that these nervom gentlemen un,
undertook to make 5olitical question
out of it however, and failed. 1t was in
this wise. They assembled in one of the
rooms of the Court HOUSE during the
September Court aud called themselves
the county Executive Committee, 50 far
as / am advised no member Of that com.
mite was presently They, there pro-
posed to raise a committee to wait on our
Judges and inform them, that the fate
Of eur County Treasurer depended on
their action on the license matter-thst
unlOss license was granted to the Bor~
ougb q applicants, Mr.. Morrison 'coUid
be defeated, Whether these gentlemen
thought as they professcd know no t
If they did, their imagination, must
have been very imaginative as tho Sc.
quel proved, for Mr.. Morrison ran q
higher vote thar any other member of the
ticket. | should have remarked that,
their proposition was overuled and the
Court thus saved an insult. 1t is fact
proper to be stated here that as soon as
the Court refused license in the Spring
Of 1866 it was proposed by some of the
Democrats to make capital out of it by
taking grounds against the action Of the
Court; but their Convention WAS notified
or at least, some of its members, that il
they did, they would lose in the opera
tion no action was therefore taken, nor
has their paper ever uttered q word Of
complaint, whi!o its constant howling on
the Bond question must have wsarisd its
readers long since. ..
For the foregoing reasons, I am led to
conclude that the Republican party has
given 90 grounds OF omplaint with re
gard to its relations to the temperance
question. Our next inquiry is, as TO
whether th ere is anything to be appre.
hen ded in the future In other.words-
iu case the Court siould continue to re-
fuse license, 10 obedience to the remon,
strances of the citizens-will our party be
iujuriously affected thereby! For one ]
have no misgivings on the subject,
Most Of eur Land Lords and Restaurant
keepers are too independent for that
They would not be so unreasonable as to
expect their party to be able to control
the action of the Courts. The few ex'
ceptions to this rule are at least too shart
to join their fortunes with played GU,
organisation like the Democracy They
prefer an allianae with the party in pow
er-where they can claim an occasions
NJ u,1ul e. .k.w Ill nj