Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1871-04-01
THE INTERNAL REVENUE.
Important to Lawyers and Bush
ness Men.

| From the Memphis Avalanche Of Thursday.
In the case of the United States vs..
Ward, Judge Emmons yesterday morning
excluded as ir-evelant certain testimony
| offered to show that the neglect to pay a
| special tax had resulted from mistake.
He said if admitted it would not tend to
prove the facts necessary to raise the legal
| question upon which the learned counsel
for the defendant relied. He suggested
that slightly different theory from that
put forth would explain the omission of
the defendant, and quite as fully show the
| absence of all fraudulent intent. His
honor here remarked upon the leading
facts, and conceded that If nothing else
appeared they seemed to exclude an in
territorial violation of the law, and consti-
tuted fit case for presentatiOnto another
department of the government.
His honor then made some general re-
ferences to former trials, and said he did
not desire to make the subject of these
penal statutes annoying, but he did not
| intend to abandon it while the impolitic,
and he might say almost impossibility of
enforcement of seventies remained IN,
modified. His duties under them were
often painful in the extreme. With laws
90 excessively punitive that heightened
and honest jurors demanded the most con-
elusive proof before they would convict,
the Congress which had created them had
30 limited the powers of the administra-
tors, that not over one-fourth of the pro-
fessional force necessary to prepare eau
ges for trial was afforded. On Tuesday
defendant, indicted for retailing liquor,
was acquitted, whom l presume many
thought guilty. A single witness swore
he supposed the defendant was the pro-
prietor of hotel, from the fact that he
tive testimony. 1t was fact capable of
the readiest proof. 1t could have been
made certain beyond all controversy. The
charge l felt compelled to give, looking
to the fact that it was State prison of
Tense, made the acquittal of the jury
highly proper. l am frequently perplex-
ed as to what my duty is; whether to
hold rigidly to the old common law rules,
demand a full compliance in all cases
where their strict requirements, or simply
admit what is relevant, and as too fire.
quently occurs in modern courts, leave
the counsel to wrangle it out before the
jury.
had no doubt l was and am pursuing
the right course, and should now have
none but for the evil example of going
through the form of trial when the pub
lie knows the offender is guilty, but he
escapes because of the unnatural and use
less severity of the penalty and the mad
equate instrumentslities provided by the
law for conviction. l cannot, however,
believe that the duties of the Court should
be modified by the imperfect organization
of the force, whose duty it is to bring the
facts before it. While sympsthize great
ly with our overburdened and able District
Attorney, cannot submit case to the
jury, whose verdict finding the citizen
guilty of some trivial and accidental offense
necessarily sends him TO prison for years
without careful judicial criticism, and
pointing out fully those defects in the
evidence which my own experience de-
tects.
All this is but echoing the complaints
of the Bar. Thus, among you, gentle
men, the criticisms are loud and frequent.
But submit, in all respect this is but
cheap kind of patriotism. II is easy to
find fault with unjust laws, and you may
readily secure the thanks of clients with
whose sufferings you seemingly so warmly
sympsthise. But pardon me if suggest
to those clients and to the people that it
is upon the heads of the lawyers of the
country that these evils rest. They should
be held responsible for them. If the in
fuential members of the Bar in my circuit
alone, those only who appear in its
courts, would expend half the zeal in
a well organized effort for the amend
ment of those statutes the remedy would
be afforded in sixty days after the next
sitting of Congress. Let the glazing and
readily appreciated defects be pointed out,
the far more beneficial and repressive eff
fects of more rational and kindly enact
ments be stated in respectful aud earn
est mode and the desired result Is as GER
tain as the action is easy. To be iEfuen-
tial, impu:ation of bad motives and all
fippant criticism, of course would be
avoided. / have right from my own
activity in this matter to make the appeal.
l have spent much time and hard labor
and some hundreds of dollars in as yet an
abortive attempt to accomplish this alone.
shall be glad to cooperate in all
sensible measures for the enforce
ment of such alterations in these
statutes as will render an Indictment high
evidence that the defendant has done that
which good citizens will condemn. As
they now stand, most injurious spirit of
opposition is engendered. A sort of Ire
land in America is enacted by the great
number of srTaignments for crimes of
the highest theoretical character, 50 far
as punishment is concerned, while the
facts show an absence of all Grim
inal intention to violate the laws of
the country. Surely there should be
difference in punishment between the de
liberste, fraudulent omission to comply
with statute and that neglect which
even with the prudent and careful will
sometimes occur in our most i'm
portant concerns. 1t is no an
swer to this that a distant, IN
known official in Washington de-
partment may compromise with the re-
pectable citizen, who is forced first to be
elected q criminal and crave the mercy of
judge, that he may be let out of prison
long enough to go some thousand miles
away and buy his Liberty. Congress never
intended those things. Its members no
more want them than we. They all IN
derstand the impolicy of the conditions,
if these conditions were laid before them.
None know them half so well as the
lawyers Of the country, and none rehalf
so guilty as they if they remain unrepre
sented.
have over and over again suggested
action on our part in reference to writs of
error in criminal cases. 1t is mere relic
of barbsrism that none is authorized even
in the most important criminal cases.
1O10 z z 2 z 1911