Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1871-02-17

of ale. wine ard beer, be submitted to the legal
voters OF the County at the next geneual election,
In accordance with the provisions OF said act and
that notice OF said submission shall be published
IN the Buchanan County Bulletin and Buchanan
Comfy Conservative for fonr consecutive weeks
next preceding eaid election"
It will be noticed that the last
clause is simply direction to the
Auditor as to publication, and as
before stated, was not required to
be made by Chap. 80. Because in
this superAuous clause buchanan
County Conservative" was printed
Independence Conservative" the
real name Of the paper,) when, the
resolution was published, TIE beer
law vas claimed to be invalid! That
was the only flaw that could be
picked with the resolution, but it
answered the purpose of pettifog-
gers to influence the jury.
2. 1t is required by Chap. 50
that the resolution be spread upon
the minutes of the Board. There it
will be found, all right. Why did
not the Board direct the Auditor to
spread the resolution upon the min
utes, as they directed him as to pub
lication? They might have done so
with the same propriety, but the
law required neither course to be
taken.
3. The law says the resolution
must be published, &c.-not that
the Board shall order it published,
and designate the papers. Had the
Board said nothing about publica-
ton, it would all the same have
been the duty of the Auditor to have
the resolution published as directed
by the law; or on the other hand,
had the Board directed the publica-
ton in the Dubuque Times and Du-
buque Herald, it would still have
been the duty of the Auditor to have
the resolution published in the
county papers, as required by the
law. The resolution scas published
as required by law, as appears by
files of the papers in the Auditors
Office, and as was shown on the trial
by the affidavits of the publishers.
This step was all right, then.
A.. If upon, a canvass of the vote,
a majority is found to be "For Pro
hibition," then the. act shall be in
full force, &C., and the Board shall
so declare by resolution. Upon
canvass of the vote, Oct. 18th, 1870,
it was found that 1854 votes had
been cast "for prohibition" and 1871
votes against prohibition" On
the 10Th of October, 1870, the Board
adopted the following resolution,
viz:
Resolred, bu he Boam cf svnerr;sors Of Buchan
IN Co~nfn. Io'rn, That the Act passed by the 18th
General Assembly, entitled IAN Act to provide
for the prohibition of the sale of Ale. Wine and
Beer in Counties. by vote of the people," be and
is hereby declared to he in full force and effect
amer the FIRST MONDAY III January, 1871, IN accord
ance with vote of the electors of said county,
Oct. 18th, 1870.
Thus we see that this requirement
was strictly complied with. Moth
ing that the law requires was omit
ted or varied from the strict letter
of the law in the whole chain of
events which gave effect to the law
as it now exists in this county.
True, the attorneys asserted on the
trial that there was no evidence be-
fore the Board, when they adopted
the last resolution, that their June
resolution had been published rs
required. OF that matter the Board
were to be their own judges. Even
were it otherwise, the Board had at
command files of the papers contain
ing the published resolution, and l
believe it is generally conceded that
documents are themselves the best
possible evidence of what they con-
tain.
In conclusion let me say that
at least one of the attorneys for tho
defense had stated that they pro-
posed to take the case sguarely up
to the Supreme Court for the pur-
pose of obtaining decision upon
the constitutionality of the law. The
honesty of this declaration was dem
onstrated by demanding jury and
then resorting to the lowest petit
FORGERY, to wiring out from them a
decision for the defendants, well
knowing that the State could not APP
peal from an advcrseSlecision.
PROFESSIONALLY they feel very
doubtful of obtaining a decision
against the law, and if they can
worry out and discourage weak
kneed temperance men from attempt
ing to enforce the law, by pettifog-
gerry, by SANDER, by exciting pref
udices and raising hue and cry
against those who exercise the in
alienable right of every citizen to
secure the punishment of those who
deliberately violate the laws, they
will have accomplished their end of
thwarting the will of the people. of
the county, with much less trouble,
risk and expense, than by taking
case to the Supreme Court. 1t re-
mains to be seen how well this pro-
gramme will succeed.
J. L. LOOMS.
BreadstuHs.