The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1927-06-09
JUNE TERM OF THE CIRCUIT
COURT NOW IN SESSION

Sec. 6. Every person elected or ap-
pointed to any office Of profit or trust
under this Constitution or under the
laws made pursuant thereto shall, be-
fore he enters upon the duties of such
office, take and subscribe the follow
ing oath or affirmation: |, -, do
swear Cor affirm that l will support
the Constitution Of the United States
and that | will be faithful and bear
true allegiance to the State of Mary
land and support the Constitution and
Laws thereof; and that | will, to the
best of my skill and judgment, dill
gently and faithfully, without part
iality or prejudices, execute the office
of -- according to the Constl-
tuition and Laws of this State (and,
if a governor, senator, member of the
House of Delegates, or judge) that l
will not, directly or indirectly, receive
the profits or any part of the profits
of any other office during the term of
Now, therefore, every senator,
every member of Congress, every
state executive and state officer, every
of the state senate, every one of your
equity OlllCSIS anu SIdIe OlllSSl ., idS
taken that solemn oath to support the
Constitution; every naturallzed citi-
zen is required to take that oath.
Now suppose all of them kept and OBJ
served that oath. Suppose none of
them violated that oath. You would
have in Maryland, and you would have
in the United States such body of
public opinion in favor of the enforce
ment of the 18th Amendment that the
liquor problem would not be a prob
lem at all in the United States.
Now, gentlemen, l am calling your
attention, not to the 18th Amendment,
nor the Volstead Act, which you have
no power to enforce; but what l am
calling to your attention is your own
local liquor law which we have had
here for many years. 1t makes no
difference whether you and | are in
favor of the statute or not. 1t ought
to be utterly immaterial to this court
whether the whole grand jury were
made up Of men who were opposed to
the 18th Amendment or to our local
law or not, because so far as your
duty is concerned you have just taken
a solemn oath under which you have
sworn to enforce the law, and you, as
the grand jury, and l, as member of
this court, have nothing to do with
the making of the law. You are here
! for one purpose, and one purpose on
! ly, and that is to enforce the law. The
/ legislature declares what the law is.
| We have our duty to perform and that
is to see that that law is enforced in
this county and in this state. In this
| county at present the only statute
which you can enforce is the statute
which makes it unlawful to sell or
to have intoxicating liquor in posses
sion for the purpose of sale. If these
cases are brought to your attention
ask you'll don't ask this grand jury
to indict anybody, but l do ask you to
consider the testimony and the evil
dence adduced before you, and if a
prima facie case is made out, then it
becomes your duty to bring a present.
ment and Indictment. 1t might not
be improper for me to state now in
the presence of the grand jury and
this audience that there is an amend
ment to the local liquor law making it
unlawful to manufacture intoxicat-
ing liquor in Garrett county but the
law did not take effect, however, until
the first day of June. The manufac-
ture of liquor, therefore, did not be-
come unlawful in this county so far as
your local law is concerned until the
| first of June, and | hereby think,
therefore, that sufficient time has not
passed within which to get evidence
of violations of that particular stat
ute, but | mention it now so that the