Caswell v. State

• Decision Date: 31 July 1841
• Citation: 21 Tenn. 402
• Parties: CASWELL AND HILL v. THE STATE.
• Court: Tennessee Supreme Court

21 Tenn. 402

CASWELL AND HILL

v.THE STATE.

Supreme Court of Tennessee.

July, 1841.

The grand jury of Knox county, at the February term, 1841, of the circuit court, Judge Scott presiding, returned an indictment against William R. Caswell and Anderson Hill, charging that they “did vend and sell, in less quantities than a quart, a certain kind of spirituous liquor, called wine, to one John Dameron, for a valuable consideration, contrary to the statute,” etc.

The case was submitted to a jury at the same term, upon the plea of not guilty, and a verdict rendered against the defendant.

A motion for a new trial and in arrest of judgment being made and overruled, the court, Judge Scott presiding, fined each of the defendant $12.50. From this judgment the defendants appealed in error.,

Lyon, for plaintiffs in error; Attorney General, for the State.

Turley, J., delivered the opinion of the court.

The plaintiffs in error were indicted and convicted, in the circuit court, for selling wine by less measure than the quart, and they prosecute this writ of error to reverse the judgment thereon.

The question for consideration is whether wine is a spirituous liquor within the meaning of the statute passed in the year 1837, ch. 120, making it a misdemeanor to retail spirituous liquors. We think it is not. Wine is a fermented liquor. Spirits are distilled liquors. And this distinction exists, not only in common parlance, but is recognized by chemists and philologists. Mr Webster, in his eighteenth definition of the word “spirit,” calls it a strong, pungent, stimulating liquor obtained by distillation--as rum, brandy, gin, whiskey. Wine he defines to be the fermented juice of grapes. Dr. Johnson defines spirit to be an inflammable liquor, raised by distillation, and wine the fermented juice of the grape. The word “spirit” is derived from the Latin word “ spiritus,” one meaning of which is life. The discovery of the art of distillation belongs to the alchemists, who made it in the course of their investigations after what they called the elixir vitae, a liquid the discovery of which was to render man immortal. When by distillation they had procured pure alcohol, judging from its effects, they for a while were deluded by the hope that the grand secret had been discovered, and called it aqua vitae--water of life. Brandy is still so called by the French-- eau de vie. The English, in adopting a name, have taken the word “ spiritus,” as the root from which to...