Stephen Johnson Field

“ Congress never intended to interfere with the operation of the treaty, or to sanction the sale of liquors in any ceded territory, where an express stipulation provides that they shall not be sold. The evils resulting from the use of spirituous liquors are so many and so appalling that the government has, from an early period of our history, abored to prevent their introduction among the Indians. ”

“ It would require very clear expressions in any general legislation to authorize the inference that congress proposed to depart from its long-established policy in regard to a matter of such vital importance to the peace and to the material and moral well-being of these wards of the nation. ”

“ The laws of congress are always to be construed so as to conform to the provisions of a treaty, if it be possible to do so without violence to their language. This rule operates with special force where a conflict would lead to the abrogation of a stipulation in a treaty making a valuable cession to the United States.
The unauthorized introduction of liquors into the ceded territory constitutes the offense, although if they were not sold or given away no injurious consequences would follow ”