The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1891-05-14
Anti-Lottery Case Postponed.

The attorneys for the publishers of
the New Orleans States and the Mobile
| Register and the Louisiana Lottery Com
pany April 9th. at Washington, made
a vigorous effort to prevent the post
ponement of argument in the cases
against the newspaper publishers for
violating the anti-lottery act forbidding
the circulation through the mails of
publications containing lottery adver-
tisements. The court was very much
disinclined to hear the case at this time
owing to the illness of Justice Bradley.
J. G. Carter, of New York, made a re-
quest that the case go on as originally
| ordered. He called attention to the POI
sitiOn in which postpOnment would leave
his clients, the newspaper with lottery
advertisements being excluded absolute
ly from the mail pending decision.
Under the circumstances he thought it
his duty to Gull the attention Ut the
Court to the Importance of having an
early decision. If the act were uncon-
stitutional it was a most oppressive re-
striction which should be removed
They were not unmindful of the posi-
bility of the Court being equally divided
W
thought it should be argued now never
theless. The Chief Justice was disin-
clined to grant the request and finally
said the court would retire for consulta>
ton, which it Immediately did, The
Government counsel are Indifferent as
to immediate argument or postpOnment
and offered no suggestions to the Court.
When the Justices returned the Chief
Justice announced the postponment of
the cases until the second Monday of
next October.
Counsel both for the lottery company
and for the Government had filed their
briefs in the Supreme Court and were
prepared to go on with the argument.
The contention III opposition to the
constitutionality of the law has already
been published in the newspapers, hav-
ing been summarized by the junior
counsel. In brief they are that the pow
err vested in Congress to establish post
offices and post-roads is limited by the
| first amendment fol bidding abridgement
of speech or of the press; that the anti
lottery act abridges this freedom of the
press and is unconstitutional because it
makes Congress and not a jury the
judge of the criminality of the subject
matter of publication, and does not
| first require that a jury shall, as in the
| case of obscene matter, find the publi-
cation immoral as a necessary prelimi-
| nary to conviction, and that the act is,
moreover, an attempt on the part of
| Congress to SO pervert one of it's legiti-
| mate powers to an illegitimate end as to
| accomplish purpose entirely outside of
Federal jurisdiction-viz., the suppress
| sion of lotteries within a State.
| Assistant -Attorney-General Maury,
who prepared the brief for the United
I, %rl1
| that the right to establish a postal sys-
TEN, granted Congress by the Constitu>
ton, gives Congress the power to make
and shape that service according to it's
own will. This provision, he says, did
not convey power to regulate some
thing already existing, like commerce,
but gave authority to create" a thing,
that power being committed to Congress
without reservation or qualification. As
Stunning that the contention of his oppo-
| nents that postal legislation must be
strictly confined to laws necessary and
proper for the mere carrying and distri-
| button of the mails is correct, Mr.. Maury
asks on what grounds the ranking privi-
each newspaper publisher the right to
send free one paper to every other pub
Usher can be justified. Neither is neces>
sary to the carrying of the mails, and
these laws, Mr.. Maury maintains, show
that Congress never, from the beginning
down, recognized any such limitation on
/ it's powers as is now cOntended for.
| Congress might absolutely exclude news
papers from the mails, but that would
not constitute an abridgement of the
liberty of the press. 1.-THE whole subject
is safe in the hands of the people, says
the brief, and they will be quick enough
| TO FOL xo lov OF ha oh ~
danger, without listening for the slogan
of this new sentinel of liberty-the Lou
isiana Lottery Company"
Mr.. Maury next takes up the argu-
ment that the act is an attempt to sup
press lotteries within a State and there's
fore beyond the jurisdiction of Congress.
He denies that one of the direct objects
of the legislation is to disfavor or sup
press lotteries. The direct and only OBJ
| ject to which Congress looks, he holds,
is the purging of the mails, and all the
rest is indirect and consequential.
Mr.. Maury maintains that the power
OF Congress over the mails is similar to
| the police power of the States, and that
there is no limit placed on either power
except it's abuse when Congress cleanses
the mails of the seductive, corrupting
lottery advertisements that are more
| terrible in their effects than apestilence.
| The attempts to raise the cry that this
law abridges the freedom of the press
and puts the palladium of liberty in
danger is analogous, in Mr.. Maury's
opinion, to the cry that laws making it
criminal to carry concealed weapons are
an infringement of the constitutional
right of the people to keep and bear
arms.
For the first time in the history of the
North American Indians a white woman,