National Republican., 1874-07-11
SMUGGLING silks.

The predictions of this journal regarding
the logical effects of the new customs law
are being verified more rapidly than we
had anticipated. The first case of snug
Cling under it has just been tried in the
State Of New Jersey, and has resulted in
the triumph Of the smugglers. The prop
erty in question was eleven trunks of
silks which were seized in the attempt to
pass the customs officers as passengers lug
gage. They were claimed by one Bean, Of
New York They were not inyoiced or
entered. They were unacDompsnied by
any Of the usual papers denoting their
regular Importation. They were packed in
secondhand trunks, and simply purported
to be portion of the luggage of passengers.
They were not made up into wearing sp-
parel, as We understand II, and only diff.
fered from regular importations in the char.
acter Of the packages in which they were
encaSed. Had they been found in the or
dinary cases which eoEtain silk goods, 1t is
altogether probable that the jury would have
found little df1culty In decidinS that the in
tent to defraud the revenue was clear. Asit
was, those twelve enlightened Jerseymen
were unable to discover any intantion to
defraud. That Is, they failed to discover
such intention as a, BODY One. portion
saw it with unerring distincness, while the
remainder could not see it in that light at
an: So the jury, on this point disagreed,
and Mr.. Bean gets his sic, 500 worth of
silks through froe Whats numerous family
he must havel Or how extrsvagant must
be his wife aud daughters, TO find sic, 500
worth of silks necessary, to their wearing
apparel in q single season. 4 ra.f ,...-.l
We-are not disposed to question the in
telligence of the jury or the discriminating
Judgment of these twelve wise men. Per
haps under the charge of the court and in
face, of the letter and spirit of the law, they
could not have found otherwise We sim
ply. desire to place the facts upon record,
and draw the attention of the public 70 the
circumstance that We foreRarned Congress
that such must be the logical result of Its
legislation at the very, time that 1t was
enacting it While printing the able and
lengthy argument of Mr. Ellis H. Roberts
in its favor, this journal in the:same issue,
in an editorial article upon the subject, eau
toned members against opening wide the
doors of our custom-houses to the SNUG
Cling fraternity. 1t plainly stated that the
abolition of the moieties would enable the
smugglers to corrupt the customs officials,
and thereby .evads the payment Of duties,
1t now appears that in this very instance
charge was preferred that one Of the off,
GERS had an interest In the contents Of these
trunks. But neither could this. fact be
made sufficiently apparent to the jury to
enable it TO find 1t n the verdict. ..
Elsewhere We print the points in the
charge and the verdict Of the jury. The
case win be carried to the Circuit Court for
review. This case was lost upon a single
provision Of the law, which we strenuously
urged as the weakest one in the act at the
time of its passage-that requiring the
Government to prove the intention to de-
fraud. We characterized 1t at that time as
wholly in the interest of the smugglers,
and this first case vindicates the assertion.
The old adage that "hell paved with good
intentions" is fully verified in this case. 1t
is clear that the intention of the claimant
was to secure his goods free of duty, re-
gardless f who should suffer by the act.
We asserted at the time that New York mer-
chantsdid not consider the evasion Of duties
fraud. TAey consider itsimply ''sharp trick
of their trsGe." Juries cannot be found to
convict the Perpetrators of these ''tricks''
of fraud in Commercial community until
they are educated up to the idea that the
tricks are persona robbery of themselves
as consumers, as will as integral parts of
the Government