Page:Race distinctions in American Law (IA racedistinctions00stepiala).pdf/65

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might give him spirituous liquors, but not in quantities sufficient to produce intoxication.

These laws against the sale of firearms and liquor to Negroes probably grew out of a fear by the white people of a Negro uprising, such as had occurrred during slavery. The South was in such a turmoil immediately after the War that stringent precautionary measures were considered necessary. These statutes have analogies in the present laws of the Western States against the sale of firearms and liquor to Indians. The law of Arizona[35] declares that anyone who sells or gives intoxicating liquor to an Indian is guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall be punished by a fine of between one hundred and three hundred dollars or imprisoned between one and six months, or both. The sale or gift or repair of firearms was added in 1883.[36] Idaho[37] has a law very much the same, making the fine, however, not over five hundred dollars or the term of imprisonment not over six months, or both. Dakota Territory,[38] in 1865, made it a misdemeanor to sell or give liquor to Indians. Nebraska,[39] in 1881, made it an offence punishable by a fine of fifty dollars to sell liquor to them, and in 1891 made it a felony to sell or give liquor to any Indian not a citizen, attaching a fine of not over one thousand dollars or imprisonment in the penitentiary between two and five years. New Mexico[40] makes the punishment a fine between twenty and one hundred dollars or imprisonment not over three months. Utah[41] makes the punishment a fine between ten and one hundred dollars. The law of Oregon[42] made it lawful for every white male citizen of the age of sixteen to keep and carry certain arms, impliedly denying that right to other races. Washington[43] made the punishment