These principles are legal maxims or axioms
essential to the existence of regulated society. Written constitutions
presuppose them, are subordinate to them, and cannot set them aside."
These great principles of civil jurisprudence and popular government
apply alike in every state in the Union. An eminent jurist, Judge
James Baker, of Evanston, Ill., formerly a resident of Missouri, gives
his professional opinion of the late crusading by the women there. He
maintains that it was legal; he points out that the saloons raided, at
Denver and Lathrop, were unlawful and that they were "nuisances at
common law." He quotes Illinois law as follows: "As the summary
abatement of nuisances is a remedy which has ever existed in the law,
its exercise cannot be regarded as in conflict with constitutional provisions
for the protection of the rights of private property and giving
trial by jury. Formal legal proceedings and trial by jury are not appropriate
and have never been used in such cases." Judge Baker sums up
the case thus: "The women who destroyed such property are not criminals.
They have the same right to abate such common nuisances as men
have to defend their persons or domiciles when unlawfully assailed. As
the women of that state are denied the right to vote or hold office, I
think they are fully justified, morally and legally, in protecting their
homes, their families, and themselves from the ravages of these demons
of vice in the summary manner which the law permits.
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