Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1871-03-25
TRIALS OF AN ILLICIT DISrIL-
LER. $50
An Old man win one Arm i'm JAN.

| An Old Man with one Arm in JAN
During the last few weeks we have had
some striking illustrations of the beauties
and workings of the laws governing and
| regulating illicit distillers. The ingxoY-
able demands and penalties Of these laws
throw men into jails, cells and dungeons.
l With murderers, thieves and common
felons guilty Of the highest crimes, for the
| petty offense of making a few gallons Of
corn whisky or apple brandy, because a
technicality Of stamps, s'mashes" gauges,
locks, eooperage, iermentage, proofags or
something else which he nor anybody else
understands or conprehends Ia not COM
piled with. There are prisoners in the
| jails of this and other States, under sen
tence whose sin was the making Of q few
i ga Ions of whisky, bat whose punishment
is tantamount to that which is fixed In
many cases by the statutes upon persons
| who have been guilty of great crimes. Ths
fault is in the law. Il is barbsrous in its
provisions and its operation is mostly con-
| fined to the poorer classes. All discretion
is taken away from the court, and the
Illicit distiller who has sctually made but
one gallon of spirits, is fined and i'm
prisoned as much as the greater revenue
robber who makes his thousands in def
anee of the Internal Revenue laws. In the
execution of the law which the agents and
officials are forced to do, parties are
brought by armed force, from their homes,
distances OF fifty, sixty and a hundred
miles, charged with Illicit distilling. They
may have made but a few gallons, or
on final trial they may prove themselves
innocent altogether. Months may inter-
vene before the Federal Court meets The
parties are arraigned, examined, and re-
quired to give bail IN sums Of
81, 900 or $1,000 This they cannot
do, aad they are thrown into jail with fsl-
ons convicted of crimes of the blackest
hue, charged with making a few gallons Of
corn whisky, without being surveyed,
stamped, gusged, measured, labeled,
buDged, fsrmented, mashed, branded,
sealed, etc, etc +, when, perhaps, there
was not an officer in sixty miles Of the
place to do thi. p, and when the poor illit-
crate fellows in the b Is and hollows were
ignorant of the extent Of the violation or
the penalties they we're mourning. One
of the cases in point is that of Hardy
Caldwell. Without saying whether Mr.
Caldwell did or did not violate The Law as
an illicit distilleE, we will simply state the
case. Caldwell lives "a miles from Gala
tin, in Sumner county. he is past fifty
years Of age, and has but one arm, and is
somewhat Of an imbeciie. He has large
family consisting of wife and dx daugh-
ters As we have learned the circumstan-
ces from different parties, a man named
Flagg owns a small old fashioned still IN
that locality. Caldwell stay ed about tbe dis
tilleTy, no doubt too much for his own
good, or that of his family, and made him
self ger orally useful This We have been
told was the extent of his connection with
the concern We have under
stood further that the still has net
been in operation since the middle of De-
cember, and that it has been torn down
aud that Flagghasthe apparatus under lock
and key on his premises. This is one side
of the matter. On the recent raid into
that region, Caldwell was arrested and
brought to the city. he was required TO
give bail for his appearance in the sum Of
80, coo for a further hearing. This he
could not do, and he vas put in jail.
There he has been for near two weeks.
Yesterday he was again brought before the
Commissioners. Having no witnesses,
case was made out against him, and he
was required to give bail for 81, 500 for bis
appearance before the United States Court
on the Sd Monday in April OF course he
could not give the bond, and be was taken
back TO Jail There for another month be
will remain with convicted felons. There
is no telling what disposition VIII finally
be made of him. As ne is unable to pay
any fine, indefinite and protracted conhne-
ment in Jail may be the ultimate result,
We have been thus careful to give the de-
tails of this case as ssmple Of many sucb.
and as showing that, in attempts to snp-
press evils, the mark may be oyershots and
laws be created in the execution Of which
rigorous penalties are imposed wholly DIS
proportionate to ofenses alleged or the in-
iuries inflicted