The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-10-30
OUT OF TILLMAN'S REACH.
Olney Decides That He Can't Seize
Liquor in Bond.

The Attorney General Opens His Reply
to Secretary oarlisle's Query With an
Intimation That the Latter's Letter of
Inquiry Failed to Ask What the
Writer Intended it Should-The Legal
Status of Spirits in Bonded Ware
house Described.
Washington, oct. 29-Attorney General
Olney to-day sent to Secretary Carlisle
the following communication:
l have the honor to acknowledge Your
letter of the 18th inst, enclosing copies
of letter of Gov. Tillman Of South Car
oina to the commissioner of internal
revenue, and of the letter of the com
missioner of internal revenue to your
self, and concluding as follows: Il have
therefore the honor to request that you
furnish this department with an opinion
as TO the course which should be taken
by the office of internal revenue in the
event that the state officers of South
Carolina seize spirits in the bonded ware
houses in that state"
If the request thus framed is to be
literally construed, 1t is out of my power
to comply with 1t. The course to be pur-
sued by your department in the event
specified may involve matters of fact of
which l have no knowledge, and consid-
eratiorS of eXpediency upon which il Is
not for me to pass judgment. / assume,
however, that what is meant to be in
quired about Is a question of law arising
or sure to arise in the administration of
your department, and which may thus
be stated-if the officers of the state of
South Carolina undertake to enter a
United States bonded warehouse in South
Carolina and to seize distilled liquors
therein under the dispensary law of De
the collector of internal revenue any tax
lawfully due on such liquors, is such
action to be acquiesced in as not in con-
hict with any laws of rights of the United
States.
l. The legal status of distilled liquors
in a bonded warehouse of the United
States, and under the control of the col
lector of internal revenue, is definitely
stated and settled by section 924 of the
Revised Statutes of the United States.
which declare that "all property taken or
detained by any officer or other person
under authority of any revenue law of
the United States shall be irrepleviable
and shall be deemed to be in the custody
of the law and subject only to the orders
and DEGREES of the courts of the United
States having jurisdiction thereof
2 1t need not be held, as has been sug-
gested, and perhaps might well be- that
since the tariff act of Aug. 2S, 1894, the
]
States bonded warehouse can be paid only
by the distiller. Whether that be 50 OF
not, a tender Of such taxes by sheriff
or other like state officer is necessary
Intellectual as against the statute above
quoted, since it is beyond the power of an
internal revenue collector to accept it,
and thus nullify the provisions and de-
feat the policy Of a statute which aims to
absolutely exempt such liquors from the
operation of the process Of state court.
Such tender, which, for the reason stated,
the collector is incompetent to accept
must be also Intellectual because no officer
of South Carolina has been given the
right or porwer to make 1.-THE legislature
of South Carolina not authorizing any
such tender, nor providing any fund which
can be used for that purpose.
The result is that the provisions of the
South Carolina dispensary law OF 1893
must be regarded as ineffective and in
lucrative as against distilled liquors held
in a United States bonded warehouse un-
der the control Of the collector of internal
Ta,,enue Richard Olney,
Attorney General
Columbia, S. c., Oct. 29-Gov. Tillman
saws the opinion of Attorney General OIL
new was nothing more than he expected
| That is all he has to say.