530 



MASSACHUSETTS. 



ing therewith." Such investigation was made, 

 and the Attorney-General of South Carolina, 

 Leroy F. Youraans, appeared in behalf of that 

 State. The Attorney-General of Massachu- 

 setts, Charles K. Train, then made his report 

 to Governor Rice. The Governor, in a letter 

 to Governor Hampton, dated August 30th, de- 

 clined to surrender Kimpton. He said : 



The requisition was referred to the Attorney-Gen- 

 eral of this Commonwealth, in compliance with the 

 statute thereof, to examine and report whether the 

 same was in due form of law, and whether upon the 

 facts the same should be complied with; and that 

 officer has reported to me, after a thorough examina- 

 tion of the law and the facts in the case, that the 

 practice of the Executive of this Commonwealth has 

 uniformly been to deny a requisition when it ap- 

 pears that the purpose of the requisition is other and 

 different from that of the trial of the alleged offender 

 upon the indictment, a copy of which is annexed 

 and made a part of the requisition. In the present 

 ease, in my judgment, the object of procuring the in- 

 dictment against Patterson, Parker, and Kimpton 

 does not appear to be for the purpose of trying 

 Kimpton for the crime charged against him, but for 

 a different purpose. 



By reference to the title KENTUCKY in this 

 volume an able decision of the Court of Ap- 

 peals of that State, in a case of rendition under 

 a treaty, will be found. 



The prohibitory laws of the State led to a 

 suit at law against the Boston Beer Company, 

 which was ultimately decided by the United 

 .States Supreme Court at Washington. This 

 Boston Beer Company was established in 1828, 

 long before the passage of any prohibitory laws 

 was contemplated. In 1869 its operations 

 were curtailed by those laws, although they 

 have since been repealed. Its managers took 

 the position that its orginal charter was a bar 

 against subsequent legislation. The following 

 extract contains the substance of the decision 

 of the Supreme Court : 



Had the plaintiff in error relied upon the existence 

 -of the property prior to the law, it behooved him to 

 show that fact. But no such fact is shown, and no 

 'Such point is taken. The plaintiff in error boldly 

 takes the ground that, being a corporation, it has a 

 right by contract to manufacture and sell beer for 

 ever, notwithstanding and in spite of any exigencies 

 which may occur in the morals or the health of the 

 community requiring such manufacture to cease. 

 "We do not so understand the rights of the plaintiff. 

 'The Legislature had no power to confer any such 

 rights. ^ Whatever differences of opinion may exist, 

 it is said, as to the extent and boundaries of the 

 police power of the* State, there is no doubt that it 

 .extends to the protection of the lives, health, and 

 property of the citizens, and to the preservation of 

 good order and the public morals. Nor can the Le- 

 gislature by any contract divest itself of the power to 

 provide for these objects. 



This decision virtually reaffirms the opinion 

 of the Court formerly expressed, that a State 

 has the right to regulate or even forbid any 

 branch of traffic deemed unfavorable to public 

 morals, and that a license of the United States 

 is based only on the fact that a person is en- 

 gaged in the liquor traffic, and has no reference 

 to the legality of his acts. 



The movement in politics may be said to 



have commenced with the appearance of Denis 

 Kearney, of California, at Boston about August 

 1st. An account of his championship of the 

 workingmen's cause in that State had pre- 

 ceded him, and his object now was to advocate 

 the same cause chiefly in Massachusetts. He 

 was duly received, and Faneuil Hall obtained 

 for his first public address on August 5th. The 

 resolutions adopted on the occasion were as 

 follows : 



Whereas, This republic, instituted for the avowed 

 purpose of advancing and conserving the masses, 

 has been reduced to a plutocracy that employs the 

 Eepublican and Democi-atic parties in the perfidious 

 work of establishing thieving monopolies and class 

 privileges that sap the blood of the national indus- 

 tries so that it can be lapped up by the vampires 

 of capital ; and 



Whereas, All laws enacted that are not in the direct 

 and open interest of the producing and labor classes 

 are a crime against the spirit and prosperity of this 

 republic, for which legislators should be branded 

 with the infamy of criminal imprisonment ; and 



Whereas, Infamous if not criminal class legislation 

 has been heaped upon the industries of the nation 

 by political parties until the burden has become a 

 torture of the masses from which there, is no escape, 

 except by uniting the mutual interests of the pro- 

 ducing and laboring people of all classes in such 

 political action as will give them their rightful con- 

 trol of State and national legislation, privileges of 

 which they have been plundered, and thereby re- 

 store this Government to the just and lofty purposes 

 for which it was instituted by the patriotic fathers : 

 therefore, be it 



Resolved, By the citizens of Boston, in Faneuil 

 Hall assembled, that it is in the highest and truest 

 interests of all industrial classes in New England 

 that they extend a hearty, cordial, and united sup- 

 port to Denis Kearney, the great and efficient apos- 

 tle of the laboring classes of California, who comes 

 among them for the noble purpose of uniting them, 

 as he has united their brothers in his own State, in 

 that political action which is necessary to restore 

 this Government to the just and humane principles 

 for which it was instituted, that the welfare and pros- 

 perity of that people may be recalled and firmly es- 

 tablished. 



Among the citizens of Massachusetts, Gen- 

 eral B. F. Butler was the most prominent and 

 distingushed of those in sympathy with the 

 cause of the workingmen, and that of a na- 

 tional financial reform by making the green- 

 backs or Government paper the basis "of its 

 money circulation, and thus cutting loose from 

 entangling currency connections with all other 

 nations. In a speech at Biddeford, Maine, on 

 August 10th, he is reported to have said : 



He came not to make a speech, but to commune 

 with the people on the political interests of the day. 

 He had left the old parties. He had belonged to 

 the Democratic party until it attempted to destroy 

 the Union, and was with the Eepublican party till 

 it deserted its founders, the laboring men. The 

 capitalists now hold the Eepublican party bound 

 hand and foot. Hayes has violated every pledge 

 and betrayed the negroes of the South. The affort 

 of Grant's Administration to strengthen public credit 

 was a swindle. He reviewed the history of the green- 

 back currency, and claimed it should'be made legal 

 tender for all debts, public and private. 



About this time numerous requests were 

 made to him to consent to become the candi- 



