Indian chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1882-1902, 1888-06-07
oHnRoKnR srooK LAW.

]
CHEROKEE STOCK LAW.
This law is like an old time
musket that had the wopdcrful ca
pacity of killing and manning all
around without respect to friend
or foe. To enforce some of the
laws penalties the nation runs the
risk Of being as badly damaged as
the party punished for the laws
infraction. There can be no lc-
gal objection to the execution of n
law because it is bad one. The
blame should attach to those who
made the law and not those whose
duty it is to execute its mandates.
The more rigidly such law is ex-
ecuted the better it will be for the
people and the nation, because the
people will demand a repeal or an
amendment of the law so that il
will be in accord with their con-
stitutional rights, and because the
nation has to defend itself against
the back-action effects Of the laws
execution. The liability of the
nation, as an innocent party, for
the unconstitutional seizure and
sale Of q citizens cattle may not
be any very great objection to the
law, because nobody is in the end
hurt but that good-naturod crea
ture, the nation. The legal prob
abilities are that those whose cat
tie are soizod and sold will be re-
imbursed out OF the nation's treas
ury. at the full value of such cat
tie, with considerable additional
amount for damages. BY the
transaction the nation is bound to
be loser in about eighty per cent.
Of tho market value of the stock,
and more perhaps, il we take past
sales of the kind as a criterion.
In looking over the law one is
impre ssed with the idea that there
was a labored effort to punish an
offender in every possible way
without invading the lower regions
for more exquisite forms of pun
ishment or rosorting to hanging
or the whipping post. When a
fellow passes through all the pre-
scribed penalties for introducing
cattle contrary TO the act, he is
about as completely done up in
property and person as if he had
been picked up aud thrashcd
around by a cyclone half across
the continent. a person, for the
offense of introducing cattle out
side Of the prescribed time, If he
happens to be socially or polite
ally offensive in his ncighborhood
and is put through all the penal
ties Of the law, will come out pick
ed as clean as trussed hen at a
Thanksgiving dinner, with hardly
energy enough left him to damn
his despoilers. The cattle so intro
duced are seized and sold; for any
alleged damage such cattle may
have been to any person, he is liza
BILE for damages, to be assessed per-
haps to the value Of his remaining
personal effects; then, if it is
thought he has any life left in him,
he is sent down to Tahlequah to
chop wood in grotesquely striped
drapery.
For the purpose Of punishment
and robbery the law IS a complete
success. The sheriff and his
neighbors are supreme in the
premises. There is no appeal
from their action TO a higher au-
thority, let the amount involved |
be what it may-ten or twenty |
times more than the sheriff's liza. /
bility under his bond. The con-
stitutional remedy for injury in
person, property or reputation, |
BY a due course Of law, is by this
act set aside. After a party is
stripped Of his property he can
sue the nation for damages sul-
tanned on account Of the execution
Of an unconstitutional law-ii he
can make in stick in the courts.
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THE CITIZENSHIP COURT.