The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1883-01-24
From the Nashville American
Constitutional Rights In
vaded.

ty; cut up one copper still; destroyed
twelve tubs Of beer and sixty gallons OF
singhngs. No arrests.
S. G. PyoTT, Dep. Col.
The foregoing dispatch is genuine. 1t
is the report Of an inferior officer or
agent to his superior, and both the SUI
perior and inferior are acting under or
ders from the President Of the United
States through one Of the departments.
81 have just returned from raid in
the mountains. Captured one Illicit
dislillcry in Rhea county; cut mp one
copper still; desroed twelve tubs Of
beer and sixty gallons singlings."
A man called, Or calling himself, a
deputy collector, says he made raid
and eat mp copper still and destroyed
other property This is an every day
practice all over this country and has
been for years. And who is Mr.. PyottY
Just some fellow picked up and named
II deputy collector and sent out on n
rail, Sent out for whatY 10 "destroy"
peoples property. Sent out by whom?
The United States Government, and the
act is approved by the government
wien done.
Now we have this to say about the
action Of our government and We say
it with an appreciation which amounts
to reverence for moderation in the use
Of language, and especially when speak
iDg Of our government that it is the
government commanding the citizen to
violate the Constitution in its tcnderest,
most delicate, as well as most sacred
features
The Constitution of the United States
not only provides that "no State shall
deprive any person Of life, liberty or
property, without due process Of law"
but it especaIlyprovides, not only as an
inhibition on States, but aiiirmatively-
in the greatness of its sovereign power
that no person shall be held to answer,
etc, NOR be deprived of life, liberty or
property, without due process Of law"
Taking this as fundamental, our own
State and all the other States have
made similar constitutional provisions.
Due process of law F" has been de-
fined thousand times by the courts,
always the same way; it means judg-
mont before punishment. Congress
can't confer on the President of the
United States, nor upon the heads of
departments, any power to take or touch
any mans property till after judgment
that is, to appropriate it or destroy it.
But here practice has been adopted
Of sending into the woods on raid such
persons as the Government can pick up
and hire, with Instructions to destroy the
property ofpersons found violating the
law. The extraordinary feature of the
proceeding is that the United States
has done away with the right of trial.
No judgment is rendered property is
taken and destroyed. Who decided the
case Nobody but the deputy collector;
no warrant, no arrest, no Judgment, no
intermediate or final process, no indict-
ment or prcscntmont, no counsel, no
compulsory process for witnesses, no
meeting them face to face-none of all
this but deputy collector takes the
place Of all oft. Out on a raid he be-
GENES sheriff, judge, jury, and first pun.
ishes by destroying property, and then
hunts up the offender and takes him off
to Jail and holds him to see if the pun
ishment was all right
This is notulll. fla man whose prop.
erty is being destroyed, demands. as he
has right to, to see the authority, the
process, and finding there is none, de. .
mands that the deputy collector stop,
whereupon the deputy collector sheets
him down, this man, the deputy col
lector, is free from the State courts. If
indicted in n State court, he makes IN
affidavit, his own affidavit, no proof
needed, and transfers the case to the
Federal court. This great wrong has
been brought before the cour,s-the
United States Supreme COURTYARD it
has recognized the right to deprive the
State courts Of all jurisdiction when the
ofense is committed by deputy col
lcctor, and the departments fully sus-
tain the destruction of property without
trial. The departments say they can.
not collect the revenue without this
power.
The Legislature of Tennessee, if it
wants to go into the instructing bust
ness, would do well to instruct our Sem
ators and. request our Representatives to
vote for the repeal, out and out, of the
Internal Revenue tax.
The highest court in England has de-
cded that the British government has
no such power as is exercised here, that
is, of interfering with the rights of per.
sons without warrant duly signed and
specifically charging the offence.
No lawyer would for moment pre-
tend that such power as this could be
exercised by the departments,
and hence the necessity for the repeal
of the law. The citizen is totally with.
out remedy. The Government, if
such officer is sued or indicted in the
State court, at once steps in and deter
mines whether the injured party may
This makes the injured citi.
zen suppliant, instead of man with
rights The whole system ought to be
wiped out.
AZ dance gwen in North Carolina
a sl,csnuy, one mau was stabbed, one
sshot, Two dubbed, two had bones bro.