Stephen H. Branch's Alligator, Vol. 1 no. 20, September 4, 1858
History
Stephen H. Branch's Alligator, Vol. 1 no. 20, September 4, 1858
New York (N.Y.) -- Politics and government
We read in the daily prints that a gentleman by the name of Hoey, while
returning from Rockaway, in company with a gentleman and lady, in
passing a turnpike gate, gave the girl, attending the bar, a coin which
he presumed to be a good American quarter dollar, but which the girl
pronounced to be bad. The turnpike man, who chances to be a justice of
the peace, immediately caused the arrest of all parties, who were forced
to send to Rockaway for bail. Even after the arrival of the bail the
party were detained several hours from lack of the necessary printed
blanks, while Mr. Justice and turnpike man Pearsall, copied the process
from a musty law tome. It is needless to add that upon the appearance of
Mr. Hoey and counsel from New York, all proceedings were dismissed as
frivolous.
Gross as this outrage may appear at the first blush, and intense as was
the stupidity of the Long Island Dogberry, it can be daily paralleled by
the actions of our own law courts, especially when we extract our police
magistrates from barrooms and grogeries. Now one question: Have we one
single police magistrate in this city who ever swept out a lawyers
office, much less ever studied the profession? They are doubtlessly
intelligent and well-meaning men, but then they are not lawyers, and
consequently unfit to be entrusted with the custody of our personal
independence. No right can be dearer than that of free locomotion, and
therefore we should be more particular in the selection of these judges,
than those controlling the right of property. Imprisonment, like the dew
of heaven, falls alike upon the rich and the poor, and no citizen should
be jeopardized as to personal liberty and representation without the
strongest possible precaution.
News from a Watering Place.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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