New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1874-07-25
WASHINGTON CRIMINAL LAW
GEN. r. D. MUssEYs DISCOVERY.

BAROUs PUNIsIIMENTs.
To me EditOr Of The Tribune.
SIR: Enlightened criminal Jurisprudence
looks with dlstrust II not positive aversion upon erin
ina prosecutions libel Most of the states that have
revised their criminal codes have dropped hs onense
They have left to the individual aggreved his private
remedy against the wrongdoer If he elect to use it,
But knowing what an engine in the hands OF the I'M
scrupuous power this doctrine OF criminal libel Is.
they have taken away the opportunity to handle H. II
was something sure to be abused that they have
wisely determined not to permit 1t to be used. The
record OF criminal libel is the record OF despotsm
conservatism and governmental rottenness trying to
prevent reform! by sranglng the CRITICISM WHICH pre-
cedes and begets reform.
ys not creditabe TO the legislators the District OF
Columbia that the offense OF libel is crImnally cognz
able in the Federal capital But II is quite OF piece
with other District legislation. Congress having been
consttutonay charged with legislating for the Dis
trict has first shrked the duty, never acting
when it could avoid acting, and always, when driven
20 act aiopng any makeshit expedent that promised
to save labor. In such lazy mood the Congress IN
1901 enacted that the laws then IN force in Maryland
shoud apply in that part OF the District coded by Mary
land There q similar provision for the part ceded
by Virginia but the Virginia part OF the District has
been taken back and only what Maryland gave remains
to be improved by Board Of Works governed by com
missoners and taxed by Congress) This gave the Dis
statutes and the common law as in force in Maryland
80 common law crimes" became part OF the District
criminal law Why, the elder lawyers Will tell you how
Ann Royal was tried scold" and laugh at the
sentence. and its suggested amendment This was by
virtue OF the common law" which got into Maryland
when colony, and which remained to her as an indie
pendent State Although the United States have spent
100000 in having codes and reyons of District laws
prepared Congress has always been too lazy TO adopt
any of the schemes proposed. "Adoptw nay, TO con-
slider. II the discussion Of the Shepherd-Ddna libel
shall direct public attention to the condition of our
laws here and especially to the condition of our crmi-
nal law which full OF barbarisms. inc0ngruitcs, and
Inconsistencies 1t will not be wholly valueless.
But again. Mr.. Dana could only be criminaly indicted
here beler upon the doctrine OF constructive pub
lcation, and by a stretch of that doctrine too His
"bels composed and written and printed and in
the popular acceptation OF the word published in New
York As proprietor Of his paper, however, he
said to have sent copies OF bis papers containing the
bels into the District And he became constructiyely
publisher Of them in this District This doctrine, it is
clear was invepted by some acute metaphyscian "to
give jurisdiction" where in the ordinary OF events
and OF reasoning no Jurisdiction would attach In other
words enlarge the capacity Of judges to punish The
gment though IS timehongred, and therefore Is good
law" But this proposed indictment raises 1gment
upon Pigment in its endeavor to grasp a New-York
publisher 1t supposes him to send his papers to the
DlsUlCt IN btllct Iact ne uOcs
He sells his papers in Ncw-York and the purchasers
have them carried to the District by express mail.
Probably nine out of every ten 20 by the former The
express and the postoflce, then, are the real
publishers OF the "Hbels' the District. II they
did not bring them here, should not have them And
the dealers are their accompces They order the
papers; they sell them to whomever they can; they
circulate the poison they give the false report cur
rency In the widest days Of Maine Law feryOr who
ever dreamed of ndicng In a Massachusetts, court
NewYork trader for selling In NewIork liquor 10 go
to Massachusetts, The Bay-State purchaser was the
one who had offended the law-not the New-York mer-
chant The reason is plain 1t is found in the automatic
statement that criminal laws have no eNtraterrl0ral
jurisdiction That there is in New.York the criminal
oense OF libel does alter the What any ono
indicted for here only, is oense against our
laws and an oTonse against laws be committed
only within territory; outside boundaries our
laws are not laws, have yigor, existence even.
II the publication be the gt OF the crime OF libel clearly
publication in NewYork is not offending laws. The
man who brings the article into the District publishes II
here He. and he only, is amenable to the offended
law.
II may not be generally known to your readers that
there law surviving to Us from Maryland which in
cts penalties for blasphemies. &C. IN this District II
is Law remarkable that it will bear quotation in
full. 1t is as follows:
An act TO punish blasphemous swearers, drunkards.
sabbath breakers and for repeating the laws here
BE BY Right Honorable me lord Proprietor BY and
TS and Iossf Hosses Of G.,%Ss aait Of
That il any person shall hereafter within this prov
ince Willingly maliciousy, and advsedly, by writing
speaking, baspheme or curse God or deny our sa-
vOr Jesus Christ to be the son OF Cod or shall deny the
Holy Trinity. the Father. Son. and Holy Ghost or the
Godhead of of the Three Persons, or the UNITY of
the Godhead shall utter any proane words concern
ing the Holy Trinity or any OF the persons thereof and
shall be thereof convict by verdict or confession shall
for the first Ononse be bored through Tue tongue ana
fined $40 sterling to the Lord Proprietor 10 be applied
the of the county the oense shall be
mittod To be levied on the offenders body. goods aud
chaels lands or tenemens and In case the said hne
cannot lie levied the offender shall suffer six months
imprisonment without bail or manprise; and that for
the second ofense, the offender being thereof convict
aforesaid shall be sugmatzed by burning In the
forehead with the letter and fined & 10 sterling TO the
Lord Proprietor to be applied aud levied as aforesaid
aud In the same cannot be levied the onender sha
suffer ~ months imprisonment without bait main
prse and that for third Ofense the offender being
convict as aforesaid, snail suffer death without benefit
of clergy.
There IA sections more but they refer to swear
Ing, drinking, and breaking tue SABBATH
That such law should remain upon the statute book
of Federal capital that it should have been adopted
by the Congress, and that all successive Con-
crosses should have been too lazy to repeal it, should
have wifuy, by refusing to deal with IT, perpetuated
IT, are facts which. with due submission, seem much
worth the attention of Judge Poland the alleged
cass o,aisSas remedy which he had passed the
ond section OF the law heucefVrh to DO known by his
name.
Under this doctrine OF constructive publication, there
is not periodical published by Israees, UnItarians,
or Rationass anywhere in the United States and hay
ing readers In the District OF Columbia whose editors
and publishers would not be liable 10 indictment and
trial under the statute cited, provided only that
there be found DIstrct-AttOrney or an Assistant Dis
rictAttOrney here whose zeal for the good aud
reputation OF the Trinity aud the Second Person thereof
equal zeal shown by our present law officers
in behalf Board Of Public Works and Gov. Shep
herd Upon the theory OF publication charged and
tanned by the law officers OF this District, their
cessors or themselves should they become orthodoxy
pious will be Indcting and convicng the editors and
publishers of The Jeiris Messenger, The Christian IN
CureT and The Ider Aud the spectator or the future
viii perhaps DIR. Wisc's tongue bored Dr. Bellowss
Mr. Abbott hid