Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 6.djvu/265

 UNITED STATES V. POSTER. 253 �until the contrary is shown. That such aots were rightly doue must be taken for granted, from the necessity of the case, else infinite inconvenience, obstruotion, and confusion would take place, and the affairs of society could noj; go on. I also asked the grand jury to observe that the language of the Code in respect to the auditor was not that he shall sign and grant a receipt for the treasurer's receipt, but simply that he shall grant such receipt. The law seemed to con- template that the pressure of labor upon the auditor's office might be so great at times as to render it inconvenient, and, sometimes impossible, for him to sign ail receipts with his own sign-manual, and in that view seems to have employed the word "grant" instead of the words "sign and grant." Besides, a mere receipt for a receipt is not so important an instrument but that the duty of signing it may very saf ely be delegated to a clerk. �Another objection of the defendants to receiving the votes of the persons holding these receipts was founded on the clause of the recent amendment to the state constitution de- claring that the citizen, in order to be entitled to vote, shall, among other things, "have paid to the state, before the day of election, the capitation tax required by law for the pre- ceding year;" and evidence was offered to show that the judges surmised, inferred, or supposed that these persons had not paid their taxes in person, but that some one else had paid them in their stead; and this was supple- mented with still other evidence, proving it to have been the opinion of these defendants that taxes so paid did not re- move the disqualification from the persons who were offering to vote. �My instruction to you, gentlemen, on this whole set of opinions set up for these defendants, is that each of the three grounds of objection to the votes in question is insufiSi- cient. The clause in the constitution is one of that class of clauses which ail legal and political maxims of construction require to be liberally interpreted and applied. If a citizen's tax bas been paid, and he is otherwise qualified, then, by ��� �