Orangeburg times. [volume] (Orangeburg, S.C.) 1872-1875, 1874-04-09

our paper, and let every household in
the County be supporter of our enter
prise. ~
COUNTY TREASURER J. L. HLyABERT
Was on last Thursday arrested and
committed to the County Jail upon a
warrant issued by theState Treasurer, for
on alleged failure i'll paying over State
taxes collected by him. The State Treas
urer's warrant was issued in accordance
with Chapt, IL Sec 36 of the Revised
Statutes. This section provides that
"any County Treasurer who shall neglect
to pay over to the State Treasurer the
amount in his hands belonging to the
State, or for which he has made himself
liable, shall be liable to be committed to
jail by warrant from the Treasurer
which warrant shall be directed to al the
Sheriffs Of the State, who shall be bound
to yield strict obedience to it under pen
atty of liability for neglect of duty; and
such County Trcasurers shall remain in
strict custody until he shall have render
ed full account and paid over the taxes
for which he is LIABLE" Tie warrant of
the State Treasurer alledgeda a failure on
the part of Humbert to puy over sixteen
thousand dollars, for which he wns nccoun
table to the State.
Upon this warrant the Treasurer was
committed to Jail about 2 o'clock. AT
four o'clock the pc titioner sued out n
writ of Habeas Copus, upon which he
was brought before Trial Justice j. Eel
der Myers and James P. Mays. Mr..
Knowlton appeared as counsel for the
priso ner and moved to discharge him on
bail, Con the ground that thssection above
quoted was unconstitutional" The counsel
relied cheify on section 16 of Article I
of the Constitution, which provides that
call persons before conviction shall be
bailable by sufficient sureties except for
capital offences"
Malcolm I. Browning Esq. acting So
licitor appeared for the s,ate. Mr..
Browning objected to the discharge Of
the prisoner upon the ground that the
section above quoted was very explicit in
its terms and required that the County
Treasurer be Committed to Jail" and
"rcmain in strict custody until he shall
have rendered full account, and paid
over the taxes" That this was coercive
power given to the State Treasurer to
compel the County Treasurers to account
for the peoples money collected by them:
that the prisoner was not entitled to the
benefit of the Habeas Corpus rs was
show by section of the Habeas Corpus
Act chapter 118 of the Revised Statutes
and that the prisoner was not entitled to
his discharge under section, 16 of the
Constitution, since he was not i'll custody
for any alledged offence, but under this
special coercive power conferred by law
upon the State Treasurer, which was in
It's nature final.
The Justices reserved their decision until
81 o'clock in the evening to which time
the Court adjourned. AT that time the
Court reussemblcd and announced their
decision to be that prisoner could be dis
charged upon his giving a bond in the
sum of Ten thousand Dollars with sure.
ties for his appearance at the May term cf
the Court of General Sessions.
The bond was then filled out and signed:
Mr.. Browning for the State objccting to
most of the surities thereto. We are in
formed that one of the surities signed
himself as AGENT for another. This to u