Posted on 12/22/2005 8:34:17 AM PST by SoFloFreeper
President Bush has pardoned two Tennesseans convicted decades ago of moonshine charges.
"It's a good Christmas present," said Charles E. McKinley, 75, of Pall Mall in Fentress County.
Also pardoned was Carl E. Cantrell, 57, of Monteagle in Grundy County, who said, "It was the biggest relief I ever had."
The pardons this week restore full U.S. citizenship to the men, including the rights to vote and buy a gun, their attorneys told The Knoxville News Sentinel. But their records will reflect both the felony convictions and the pardons.
Cantrell said that in the mid-1960s he and two friends set up a still on the side of Monteagle Mountain, surrounded by trees. "It don't take a genius to make it," he said.
Soon afterward, the site was raided and he was convicted of Internal Revenue Service liquor law violations and given three years probation.
McKinley said he was driving a friend around in 1949 and they stopped at his friend's still to get something to drink. Driving away, they were arrested by the feds. McKinley was convicted of IRS liquor law violations and given two years of probation.
He said he never intended to sell moonshine, only drink it. "I just got in the wrong place at the wrong time," he said.
McKinley added that he may have to change his political support since he's been helped by a GOP president: "I'd almost be a Republican after that."
Cantrell expressed surprise by the pardon.
"Really, to tell you the truth, I thought that nothing would be done about it," he said.
Cantrell said he was looking forward to being able to vote and buy a gun.
"I wasn't trying to cause nobody no harm," he said. "I was just trying to make a living." •
Blue lightnin' bump for Bush.
Well, Teddy Kennedy CERTAINLY would have pardoned these guys --- for a certain amount of courtesy supply... :-)
I ain't paid no whiskey tax since 1792.
Good old song:
Copper Kettle (or, "The Pale Moonlight") Words and Music by Albert F. Beddoe
copyright 1960 and 1963 by MELODY TRAILS, INC., New York, NY
Copper Kettle
Get you a copper kettle,
Get you a copper coil,
Cover with newmade cornmash
and nevermore you'll toil.
You'll just
[Chorus]
lay there by the juniper
while the moon is bright,
Watch them jugs a-fillin'
in the pale moonlight.
My Daddy he made whiskey,
My Grandaddy did too,
We ain't paid no whiskey tax
Since seventeen ninty-two
We just
[Chorus]
Build you a fire with hickory,
Hickory and ash and oak,
Don't use no green or rotten wood,
They'll get you by the smoke
While you
[Chorus]
Get you a copper kettle,
Get you a copper coil,
Cover with new-made corn mash
and nevermore you'll toil.
He needs another drink as much as he needs more fatty food.
He needs another drink as much as he needs more fatty food.
-----
The "man" is such a PIG in more ways than one...
Corn don't grow at all on Rocky Top
Dirt's too rocky by far
That's why all the folks on Rocky Top
Get their corn from a jar
Rocky Top you'll always be
Home sweet home to me
Good ol' Rocky Top
Rocky Top Tennessee
Rocky Top Tennessee
I only had a drink of "white lightnin'" once in my life and MAN that stuff will take the enamel off your teeth and blow the top of your head off! LOL
Wasn't Reagan the President who pardoned Junior Johnson?
I has a small sip once....wow...I would agree
There are tons of old songs about moonshine, moonshiners, etc. Governments have always sought to tax alcohol for human consumption.
My favorite, and one of the oldest, is:
The Ballad Of John Barleycorn
There was three men come out of the West
Their fortunes for to try
And these three men made a solemn vow
John Barleycorn must die.
They ploughed, they sowed, they harrowed him in
Throwing clods all on his head
And these three men made a solemn vow
John barleycorn was Dead.
They've left him in the ground for a very long time
Till the rains from heaven did fall
Then little Sir John's sprung up his head
And so amazed them all
They've left him in the ground till the Midsummer
Till he's grown both pale and wan
Then little Sir John's grown a long, long beard
And so become a man.
They hire'd men with their scythes so sharp
To cut him off at the knee.
They've bound him and tied him around the waist
Serving him most barb'rously.
They hire'd men with their sharp pitch-forks
To prick him to the heart
But the drover he served him worse than that
For he's bound him to the cart.
They've rolled him around and around the field
Till they came unto a barn
And there they made a solemn mow
Of Little Sir John Barleycorn
They've hire'd men with their crab-tree sticks
To strip him skin from bone
But the miller, he served him worse than that,
For he's ground him between two stones.
Here's Little sir John in the nut-brown bowl
And brandy in the glass
But Little Sir John in the nut-brown bowl's
Proved the stronger man at last
For the hunts man he can't hunt the fox
Nor so loudly blow his horn
And the tinker, he can't mend Kettles or pots
Without a little of Sir John Barleycorn.
Why? He's a very spiritual person, flammable even.
A moonshine offense in 1949 and he is still in jail? This doesn't sound right.
Neither does the other - 30 years?
Surely the goobers in the gooberment don't need to work that harshly to protect the Kennedy's from homegrown competition.
Sweet! One of my all-time favorites.
That's why raw neutral spirits is placed into oak barrels to age into mellow, smooth whiskey. (Yes, this is common knowledge, but I read once that raw spirits tastes a lot like gasoline).
In 1792 it was the Whiskey Rebellion, the very first taxpayer revolt.
Not the White Lightning Rebellion.
Have a shot of this.
Well in North Carolina, way back in the hills
Me and my old pappy had a hand in a still
We brewed white lightnin' 'til the sun went down
Then he'd fill him a jug and he'd pass it around
Mighty, mighty pleasin, pappy's corn squeezin'
Whshhhoooh . . . white lightnin'
Well the "G" men, "T" men, revenuers, too
Searchin' for the place where he made his brew
They were looking, tryin to book him,
But my pappy kept a-cookin'
Whshhhoooh . . . white lightnin'
Well I asked my old pappy why he called his brew
White lightnin' 'stead of mountain dew
I took a little sip and right away I knew
As my eyes bugged out and my face turned blue
Lightnin' started flashin' and thunder started crashin'
Shhhoooh . . . white lightnin'
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