The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-10-21
AN "INFAMOUS" STATUTE.
THE MADNESS OF CONGRESS AND THE ABAsE
MENT OF THE BENCH.
From the st. Joseph Herald, Oct. 1871

tLC w. cooC PA A1CA 1u WV Aos
Surely if the lethargy of death lies not
States Judge on one of the whisky stamp cases
would sound like an alarm bell at midnight
in their ears.
The i1dge declares the law to be very
great hardship; that the system introduced is
harsh and novel beyond anything in the ma.
tons history" But terribly harsh and novel
as it is to punish as a felony the act of de-
frauding the government out of few dollars
in the case, he Declares for the first time in
our history, Congress has made such an act q
felony regardless Of the intent, and that an
accused person may have committed the act
ever SO innocently, and yet be punished as a
felon Some day, somewhere, this decision
will be read with amazement. But we fear it
may not be in our day, nor under our present
form of government. Some day. do we say
Why, there is not nation in Europe now,
where the press is half free, in which such
doctrines would not cause a universal roar OF
excavation. This Judge sits there as a mere
mummy, galvanized into temporary resem-
blance of life and speech. to utter the bidding
of the irresponsible, ignorantf careless, reck-
less, jobbing despot.
Congress, which like some jury has uttered
its verdict and returned to the great mass of
the body polite, and there dissolved away
for ever so far as any accountable individ ual-
ity is concerned, SO for the very reason of this
irresponsible character, should've judges of
the land the more closely scrutinize the bills
passed by any Congress. Yet, forsooth, and
so low bedraggled and befouled has become
the judicial ermine that the very highest of
the judiciary make pretense of approaching
the acts of Congress with kind of venera-
ton which is the very mockery of deserved
respect.
When the Constitution of the United States
declares itself the supreme law of the land,
and swears all the judges to discharge their
duties by it, any law to the contrary notsith-
standing, and Declares that "cruel and un-
natural punishments shall not be inflicted"
when the ablest writer's and expounders have
all declared that the right and duty of all
Judges of courts of record to declare any
unconstitutional act of Congress utterly
void is settled beyond all controversy,
it seems like adding insult to in
jury for a judge to talk as though
he had nothing to do but ascertain the will
of the lawmakers in law he stgmatizes as
"harsh and unknown" Ito evade the words
"cruel and unusually in any case, and yet, to
add to its severity and unreasonableness, as
certain that the intent of the accused cannot
be inquired into. To punish as felony SO
simple an offense is 90 cruel and unusual" as
IL WOuld De 10 PUNISH petlI larceny Dy Ill
prisonment at hard labor for twenty years;
or highway robbery by solitary confinement
for life. But to punish whomsoever neglects
to cancel the stamp on the whisky
barrel without intending to defraud or
violate any law, however ignorantly, carelessly
or disinterestedly, as felon, is not merely
cruel and unusual it's brutal, infamous and
Internal. They were mad who made such
laws! And what are they, who, calmly and
coldly, sitting as judges sworn to decide un-
der law supreme over all acts of Congress,
wholly neglect to consult the intent of that
supreme law, the Constitution, in their
anxiety to get at the intent of some Congress
composed of lot of politicians long since
politically and morally gone to the dogs.
When we come to that, is not the intent OF
those immortal men, whose names and histo-
ries shall survive forever emblazoned in the
memory and heart of the nation, and where
every argument and opinion on it are recorded
in books that can never perish, worthy of
some little effort on the part OF their honors
to ascertain?
There can be no crime without consenting
mine no law without consen ting constitu-
ton.