Statement of the Case.

mills of complainant, or in or upon any mining or other property of complainant, or from preventing any one from entering the service of the complainant herein, or in any unlawful manner interfering with the business of said complainant in employing persons to work upon its said property, or from going upon any part of the said complainant's property without permission from the complainant or its agents or employés so to do, or in any manner entering upon the works of the complainant, or within the buildings of the complainant, without its consent or the consent of its managers, agents, or employés, and reference is hereby had to the bill of complaint herein, to which your attention is hereby directed, until the further order of this court or the judge thereof; and the foregoing restraining order is also directed against the agents, servants, aiders, abettors, members, and associates of the defendants or either of them."

The indictment thereupon averred that the defendants, on July 11, 1892, and while the writ of injunction was in full force and effect, "at Shoshone County, within the Northern Division of the District of Idaho aforesaid, did unlawfully, corruptly, fraudulently, and feloniously conspire, combine, confederate, and agree together to commit an offence against the United States as follows, to wit," said defendants did, then and there, "unlawfully, corruptly, fraudulently, and feloniously conspire, combine, confederate, and agree together to intimidate, by force and threats of violence, the employés of the said Bunker Hill and Sullivan Mining and Concentrating Company, then working in and upon the mines of the said company and within and around the mill and other buildings. of the said company in said Shoshone County, said mines, mill, and other buildings of said company being then and there the mines, mill, and other buildings mentioned and described in said writ of injunction, with the intent then and thereby on the part of the said" defendants (naming them) "to compel the employés of the said Bunker Hill and Sullivan Mining and Concentrating Company to abandon their work in and upon the mines, mill, and other buildings of the said mining company last mentioned;" that the defendants “did

Statement of the Case.

then and there further unlawfully, fraudulently, corruptly, and feloniously conspire, combine, confederate, and agree together to intimidate, by force and threats of violence, the officers and agents of the said Bunker Hill and Sullivan Mining and Concentrating Company, with the intent then and there and thereby, by means of said force and threats of violence, to compel the officers and agents of said mining company to discharge and dismiss from the employ of the said mining company all employés (other than such persons as were members of what is called the Miner's Union) who were working either upon or within the mines of the said company and in the said company's mill and other buildings, which said last-nientioned mines, mill, and other buildings are the mines, mill, and other buildings mentioned and described in the aforesaid writ of injunction issued out of the said United States Circuit Court."

The indictment further averred that on July 12, 1892, the defendants, while the writ of injunction was in full force and effect and the suit in which the writ issued was still pending and undetermined, "in aid of and in furtherance of and for the purpose of effecting the object of the said unlawful and malicious combination and conspiracy formed and entered into as aforesaid and for the purpose and object aforesaid, did, on the said 12th day of July, 1892, at the county and State aforesaid, unlawfully, fraudulently, corruptly, wilfully, and feloniously, by force and violence and threats of violence, intimidate and compel the employés of the said Bunker Hill and Sullivan Mining and Concentrating Company, then and there working in and upon the mines of the said company and within and around the mill, property, and other buildings, all the property of said company, to cease and abandon work in and upon the mines and within and around the mill, property, and other buildings of said company, said mines, mill, and other buildings of said company being then and there the same mines, mil!, property, and buildings mentioned and described in said writ of injunction, and said employés being then and there in the employ of said company, and did then and there unlawfully, corruptly, fraudulently, wilfully and feloniously compel

Statement of the Case.

and force the said employés, by the intimidation and violence and threats of violence aforesaid, to abandon and leave and cease their said employment under said company and their work in and upon the mines, mill, and other buildings of the said mining company last mentioned." And the defendants did by intimidation and violence and threats of force and violence intimidate and compel the officers and agents of said Bunker Hill Company against their will and consent to discharge and dismiss from the service and employment of the company all its employés, other than such persons as were members of what was called the Miners' Union, who were then working in and upon the property of the company.

"And so the grand jurors aforesaid, upon their oaths aforesaid, do charge and say that the said" defendants (naming them) "at the said Shoshone County, within the said Northern Division of the District of Idaho, did, on the 11th day of July, 1892, unlawfully, wilfully, fraudulently, and feloniously conspire, combine, confederate, and agree together to commit an offence against the United States, to wit, to corruptly and by force and threats obstruct and impede the due administration of justice in the aforesaid United States Circuit Court for the Ninth Judicial Circuit, District of Idaho, and did, there-. after, on the 12th day of July, 1892, in pursuance of said unlawful and malicious combination and conspiracy, unlawfully, wilfully, and feloniously, in the manner and form aforesaid, corruptly and by force and threats of violence obstruct and impede the due administration of justice in the aforesaid United States Circuit Court. All of which is contrary to the form, force, and effect of the United States statutes in such cases made and provided and against the peace and dignity of the United States."

Motions to quash and demurrers were filed and overruled, and, after verdict, motions in arrest were made and denied. Plaintiffs in error were convicted and sentenced to imprisonment in the Detroit house of correction, George A. Pettibone for two years, John Murphy for fifteen months, and M. L. Devine and C. Sinclair for eighteen months each.

This writ of error was thereupon allowed.

Opinion of the Court.

Mr. Walter H. Smith and Mr. Patrick Reddy for plaintiffs in error.

Mr. Attorney General and Mr. Charles W. Russell for defendants in error.

MR. CHIEF JUSTICE FULLER, after stating the case, delivered the opinion of the court.

Under section 5399, any person who corruptly endeavors to influence, intimidate or impede any witness or officer in any court of the United States, in the discharge of his duty, or corruptly, or by threats or force, obstructs or impedes, or endeavors to obstruct or impede, the due administration of justice therein, is punishable by a fine of not more than five hundred dollars, or by imprisonment not more than three months, or both; and under section 5440, if two or more persons conspire to commit an offence against or defraud the United States, and one or more of them do any act to effect the object of the conspiracy, all the parties are liable to a fine of not more than ten thousand dollars or to imprisonment for not more than two years, or to both. The confederacy to commit the of fence is the gist of the criminality under this section, although to complete it some act to effect the object of the conspiracy is needed. United States v. Hirsch, 100 U. S. 33.

This is a conviction for conspiracy, corruptly and by threats and force to obstruct the due administration of justice in the Circuit Court of the United States for the District of Idaho, and the combination of minds for the unlawful purpose and the overt act in effectuation of that purpose must appear charged in the indictment.

The general rule in reference to an indictment is that all the material facts and circumstances embraced in the definition of the offence must be stated, and that, if any essential element of the crime is omitted, such omission cannot be supplied by intendment or implication. The charge must be made directly and not inferentially or by way of recital. United States v. Iless, 124 U. S. 483, 486. And in United States v. Britton, 108 U. S. 199, it was held, in an indictment for conspiracy

Opinion of the Court.

under section 5440 of the Revised Statutes, that the conspiracy must be sufficiently charged, and cannot be aided by averments of acts done by one or more of the conspirators in furtherance of the object of the conspiracy.

The courts of the United States have no jurisdiction over offences not made punishable by the Constitution, laws or treaties of the United States, but they resort to the common law for the definition of terms by which offences are designated.

A conspiracy is sufficiently described as a combination of two or more persons, by concerted action, to accomplish a criminal or unlawful purpose, or some purpose not in itself criminal or unlawful, by criminal or unlawful means, and the rule is accepted, as laid down by Chief Justice Shaw in Commonwealth v. Hunt, 4 Met. 111, that when the criminality of a conspiracy consists in an unlawful agreement of two or more persons to compass or promote some criminal or illegal purpose, that purpose must be fully and clearly stated in the indictment; while if the criminality of the offence consists in the agreement to accomplish a purpose not in itself criminal or unlawful, by criminal or unlawful means, the means must be set out.

This indictment does not in terms aver that it was the purpose of the conspiracy to violate the injunction referred to, or to-impede or obstruct the due administration of justice in the Circuit Court; but it states, as a legal conclusion from the previous allegations, that the defendants conspired so to obstruct and impede. It had previously averred that the defendants conspired by intimidation to compel the officers of the mining company to discharge their employés and the employés to leave the service of the company, a conspiracy which was not an offence against the United States, though it was against the State. Rev. Stats. Idaho, § 6541. The injunction was also set out, and it was alleged that the defendants did intimidate and compel the employés to abandon work; but the indictment nowhere made the direct charge that the purpose of the conspiracy was to violate the injunction, or to interfere with proceedings in the Circuit Court.