A friend of ours says he paid three dollars for his dog “Fannie,” has her all registered with a collar and fixed up nice. And recently he says he has learned with considerable alarm that another fellow is coming round for two dollars more to have her registered again and wants to know what he shall do – what if the other fellow kills Fannie? – Where and how will he get his three dollars back again?
Here is a nice legal point. We are no lawyer, to be sure, but our opinion is that “Fannie, having paid taxes and had her name properly enrolled is a Constitutional” dog, having inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of rats. Fanny is a State dog, entitled to the protection of the Governor, Members of the Legislature, Supreme Court, Adjutant-General, our twenty odd Regiments of Volunteers, the Home Guards and Militia, “subject only to the Constitution of the United States.” Our advice to our friend is, if the City Marshal “or any other man” comes round after a city dog tax, set the dog on him.
– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, May 31, 1862, p. 1
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