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1 July 1864.

or valuable

packet, bag or mail of letters, with which he or she shall be intrusted, or which shall have come to his or her possession, and are intended to be conveyed by post, (a) or to be Letters containcarried or delivered by any mail carrier, mail messenger, letter carrier, route agent or ing remittances other person employed in any of the departments of the post office establishment of the papers. United States, or to be forwarded or delivered through or from any post office or branch post office established by authority of the postmaster-general of the United States, such letter, packet, bag or mail of letters containing any note, bond, draft, check, revenue stamp, postage stamp, money order, certificate of stock, or other pecuniary obligation or government security of any description whatever, issued, or that may hereafter be issued, by the United States, or by any officer or fiscal agent thereof, any bank note (b) or bank post bill, bill of exchange, warrant of the treasury of the United States, note of assignment of stock in the funds, letters of attorney for receiving annuities or dividends, or for selling stock in the funds, or for receiving the interest thereof, or any letter of credit or note for or relating to payment of moneys, or any bond or warrant, draft, bill or promissory note, (c) covenant, contract or agreement whatsoever, for or relating to payment of money, or the delivery of any article of value, or the performance of any act, matter or thing, or any receipt, release, acquittance or discharge of or from any debt, covenant or demand, or any part thereof, or any copy of any record of any judgment or decree, in any court of law or chancery, or any execution which may have issued thereon, or any copy of any other record, or any other article of value, (d) or any writing representing the same; or if any such person, employed as aforesaid, Stealing from letters, &c. shall steal or take any of the same (e) out of any letter, packet, bag or mail of letters, that shall come to his or her possession, whether such letter or packet, bag or mail of letters shall have come or been placed in his or her possession to be forwarded or delivered in the regular course of his or her official duties, or shall have come or been placed in his or her possession in any other manner, and provided that such letter or packet, bag or mail of letters, shall not have been delivered to the person or persons to whom it is directed; such person shall, on conviction for any such offence, be imprisoned not less than ten years nor exceeding twenty-one years: and the fact that any such letter or packet, bag or mail of letters, shall have been deposited in any post office or branch post office established by authority of the postmaster-general of the United States, or in any other authorized depository of mail letters, or in charge of any postmaster, assistant postmaster, clerk, carrier, agent or messenger employed in the post office establishment of the United States, shall be taken and held as evidence that the same was "intended to be conveyed by post," within the meaning of this statute. And Mail carriers deif any person who shall have taken charge of the mails of the United States, shall volun- serting the mail. tarily quit or desert the same, before such person delivers it into the post office kept at the termination of the route, or some known mail carrier or agent of the general post office, authorized to receive the same, every such person so offending shall forfeit and pay a sum not exceeding five hundred dollars, for every such offence. And if any per- Carrying letters son concerned in carrying the mail of the United States shall collect, receive or carry any letter or packet, (g) or shall cause or procure the same to be done, contrary to this act, every such offender shall forfeit and pay, for every such offence, a sum not exceeding fifty dollars.

out of the mail.

13 Stat. 506.

49. If any person or persons shall wilfully and maliciously injure, tear down or 3 Mar. 1865 11. destroy any letter-box, pillar-box or other receiving-boxes established by authority of the postmaster-general of the United States, for the safe deposit of matter for the mails Wilfully injuring and for delivery, or shall wilfully aid and assist in injuring, tearing down or destroying any such box or boxes; every such offender, being thereof duly convicted, shall,

(a) A letter containing money, deposited in the mail, for the purpose of ascertaining whether its contents were stolen on a particular route, and actually sent on a post route, is a letter, "intended to be conveyed by post," within the meaning of this clause. United States v. Cottingham, 2 Blatch. C. C. 470. The de scription of the termini, between which the letter was intended to be sent by post, cannot be rejected as surplusage, but must be proved as laid. United States v. Foye, 1 Curt. 364. An indictment, however, which charges the defendant with unlawfully abstracting a letter, coutaining bank notes, from the mail, is good, if it allege that the letter. containing bank notes, was put into the post office to be conveyed by post, and was being conveyed by post, and came into the possession of the defendant, as a driver of the mail stage. United States v. Martin, 2 McLean 256. See United States v. Golding. 2 Cr. C. C. 212. To constitute the offence, it is not necessary that the letter stolen should have been taken out of the post office building. United States v. Nott, 1 McLean 499.

(b) It is not necessary, in an indictment under this clause, to allege the note to have been of an incorporated bank, or of any value. United States v. Clark, Crabbe 584: contra, United States . Cummings, 3 Pitts. L. J. 45. See United States v. Golding, 2 Cr. C. C. 212. Nor to describe the note. United States v. Patterson,

6 McLean 466.

letter-boxes, &c.

(c) A treasury note is such promissory note. United States v. Hardyman, 13 Pet. 176.

(d) Under this act, in connection with the act 3 March 1845, 3 15 (1 vol. 768, pl. 63), a postmaster is not liable to indictment in the federal courts, for stealing a packet containing non-mailable matter, as watches. United States v. Burton, 5 Pitts. L. J. 70. (e) Taking the notes greatly aggravates the offence, and the taking must be charged and proved as a substantive part of the offence. Some evidence is necessary of the genuineness and value of bank notes charged to have been stolen out of a letter. United States v. Nott, 1 McLean 499; United States v. Fisher, 5 Ibid. 23. But evidence that the prisoner uttered as genuine, what purported on its face to be a bank note, is competent proof that it was a bank note, though it is not otherwise shown that such a bank existed. United States v. Foye, 1 Curt. 364. It is necessary, in an indictment for larceny from a letter, to lay the property stolen in some person other than the prisoner. Ibid. For forms of indictment, see Whart. Pr. § 1099, &c.

(g) By the term "packet," in this clause, is meant a packet containing letters. It does not prohibit the carrying a packet containing executions, and nothing else. United States v. Chaloner, Ware 214.

3 March 1865.

for every such offence, be fined not less than one hundred nor more than one thousand dollars, or be imprisoned not less than one year nor more than three years, or both, Fraudulently re- according to the circumstances and aggravations of the offence. And if any clerk, or moving postage stamps. other person employed in any of the departments of the post office establishment, shall wilfully and unlawfully remove from any letter, posted at or received in any post office or branch post office, established by authority of the postmaster-general of the United States, any postage stamp or stamps affixed thereto in payment of postage; every such offender, being thereof duly convicted, shall, for every such offence, be fined not more than one hundred dollars, or imprisoned not more than six months, according to the circumstances and aggravations of the offence.

12 June 18666. 14 Stat. 60.

mail matter.

27 July 1868

15 Stat. 196.

10.

50. If any person or persons shall wilfully and maliciously injure, deface or destroy any mailable matter deposited in any letter-box, pillar-box or other receiving-boxes Wilfully injuring established by authority of the postmaster-general of the United States, for the safe deposit of matter for the mails or for delivery, or shall wilfully aid and assist in injuring such mailable matter so deposited as aforesaid; every such offender being thereof duly convicted, shall, for every such offence, be fined not more than five hundred dollars, or be imprisoned not more than three years, at the discretion of the court. 51. If any person employed in any department of the post office establishment of the United States shall, wilfully and knowingly, use or caused to be used, in prepayment of postage, any postage stamp or stamped envelope issued, or which may hereafter be issued, by authority of any act of congress or of the postmaster-general, which has already been once used for a like purpose; or shall remove or attempt to remove the cancelling or defacing marks from any such postage stamp or stamped envelope with intent to use or cause the use of the same a second time, or to sell or offer to sell the same; or shall remove from letters or other mail matter deposited in or received at a post office, the stamps attached to the same in payment of postage, with intent to use the same a second time for a like purpose, or to sell or offer to sell the same; every such offender shall, upon conviction thereof, be deemed guilty of felony, and shall be imprisoned for not less than one year nor more than three years.

Fraudulent use of defaced post

age stamps, &c., Fost office depart

by persons in the

inent.

Ibid. 11.

52. If any person not employed in any department of the post office establishment By other persons. of the United States, shall commit any of the offences described in the preceding section of this act, every such person shall, on conviction thereof, be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and be punished by imprisonment for not less than six months nor more than one year, or by a fine of not less than one hundred dollars nor more than five hundred dollars for each offence, or by both such fine and imprisonment.

16 July 1862 2. 12 Stat. 589.

IX. CRIMINAL PROCEDURE.

53. That so much of section twenty-nine of an act entitled "An act to establish [the] judicial courts of the United States," approved September 24th 1789, (a) as Jurors in capital requires, in cases punishable with death, twelve petit jurors to be summoned from the county where the offence was committed, be and the same is hereby repealed.

cases.

12 Stat. 656.

President may grant partial pardons.

20 Feb. 1863 1. 54. That (to remove doubts as to the true meaning of former laws) hereafter, whenever by the judgment of any court or judicial officer of the United States, in any criminal proceeding, any person shall be sentenced, or shall have been sentenced heretofore, to two kinds of punishment, the one pecuniary and the other corporal, the president shall have full discretionary power to pardon or remit, in whole or in part, either one of the two kinds, without in any matter impairing the legal validity of the other kind, or of any portion of either kind, not pardoned or remitted. (b)

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55. In all criminal cases in which there has been or shall be a judgment or sentence against any person, as a fine or penalty, whether alone or along with any other kind of punishment, the same shall be deemed a judgment-debt, and (unless pardoned or remitted by the president) may be collected on execution in the common form of law. 56. All persons who have been or who may hereafter be convicted of crime by any court of the United States (not military), the punishment whereof shall be imprisonment, in a district or territory where, at the time of such conviction, there may be no penitentiary or other prison suitable for the confinement of convicts of the United States, and available therefor, shall be confined during the term for which they have been or may be sentenced, in some suitable prison, in a convenient state or territory to be designated by the secretary of the interior, and shall be transported and delivered to the warden or keeper of the prison by the marshal of the district or territory where such conviction shall have occurred; or if such conviction be had in the District of Columbia, then and in such case, the transportation and delivery shall be by the war

(a) 1 vol. 221, pl. 102.

(b) A pardon is not complete without delivery; and if not complete, may be revoked, by the successor of the president, by whom it was granted: a transmission of the pardon to the mar

shal, and its receipt by him, is not a delivery to the prisoner. Ex parte De Puy, 10 Int. R. Rec. 34; s. c. 16 Pitts. L. J. 121; 2 Am L. T. Rep. 130; and see Commonwealth v. Halloway, 44 Penn. St. 210.

den of the jail of said district; the reasonable actual expense of transportation, neces- 12 May 1864. sary subsistence and hire, and transportation of guards and the marshal, or the warden of the jail in the District of Columbia, only, to be paid by the secretary of the interior, out of the judiciary fund: Provided, That if, in the opinion of the secretary, the expense of transportation from any state, territory or the District of Columbia, in which there is no penitentiary, will exceed the cost of maintaining them in jail in the state, territory or the District of Columbia, during the period of their sentence, then it shall be lawful so to confine them therein for the period designated in their sentence. 57. It shall be the duty of the secretary of the interior, to contract with the managers or proper authorities having the control of such prison or prisons, for the impri- Duty of secretary sonment, subsistence and proper employment of all such prisoners, and to give the court of the interior. having jurisdiction of such offences in said district, notice of the prison where such persons will be confined, if convicted.

Ibid. 2.

Ibid. 3.

58. There shall be allowed and paid by the secretary of the interior, for the subsistence of prisoners in the custody of any marshal of the United States and the warden Cost of subsistof the jail in the District of Columbia, such sum only as it shall reasonably and ence. actually cost to subsist them. And it shall be the duty of the secretary of the interior Regulations. to prescribe such rules and regulations for the government of the marshals and the warden of the jail in the District of Columbia, in relation to their duties under this act, as will enable him to determine the actual and reasonable expense incurred.

59. It shall be lawful for the judge of any district court of the United States, to hold 11 June 1864 1. a special session of said court, at any time, whether in term or vacation, for the trial of minor offences against the laws of the United States, as hereinafter provided.

60. Whenever a complaint shall be made against any master, officer or mariner of

13 Stat. 124. Trial of minor offences.

Ibid. § 2.

any ship or vessel belonging, in whole or in part, to any citizen or citizens of the Offences by seaUnited States, of the commission of any offence, not capital or otherwise infamous, men. against any law of the United States made for the protection of persons or property engaged in commerce or navigation, it shall be the duty of the district attorney to investigate the same, and the general nature thereof; and if, in his opinion, the case is such as should be summarily tried under the provisions of this act, he shall report the same to the district judge; and the judge shall forthwith, or as soon as the ordinary business of the court will permit, proceed to try the cause, and for that purpose may, if necessary, hold a special session of the court.

Ibid. 23.

61. At such trial, it shall not be necessary that the accused shall have been previously indicted, but a statement of complaint, verified by oath, in writing, shall be presented Complaint. to the court, setting out the offence in such manner as clearly to apprise the accused of the character of the offence complained of, and to enable him to answer the complaint. And the said complaint or statement shall be read to the accused, who may plead to or answer the same, or make a counter statement.

62. The said trial shall thereupon be proceeded with in a summary manner, and the case shall be decided by the court, unless, at the time for pleading or answering, the accused shall demand a jury; in which case the trial shall be upon the complaint and plea of not guilty.

Ibid. 24.

Summary trial.

Ibid. 5.

63. It shall not be lawful for the court to sentence any person convicted on such trial to any greater punishment than imprisonment in jail for one year, or to a fine Limit of punishexceeding five hundred dollars, or both, in its discretion, in those cases where the laws ment. of the United States authorize such imprisonment and fine.

Ibid. 26.

64. It shall be lawful for the court to allow the district attorney to amend his statement or complaint at any stage of the proceedings, before verdict, if, in the opinion Amendments. of the court, such amendment will work no injustice to the accused; and if it appear to the court that the accused is unprepared to meet the charge as amended, and that an adjournment of the cause will promote the ends of justice, such adjournment shall be made until a further day, to be fixed by the court.

Ibid. 7.

65. At such trial, if by jury, the United States and the accused shall each be entitled to three peremptory challenges. Challenges for cause, in such cases, shall be tried by Challenges. the court, without the aid of triers.

13 Stat. 500.

66. Every grand jury empannelled before any district or circuit court of the United 3 March 1865 1. States to inquire into and presentment make of public offences against the United States, committed or triable within the district for which the court is holden, shall Grand juries. consist of not less than sixteen and not exceeding twenty-three persons. If, of the persons summoned, less than sixfcen attend, they shall be placed on the grand jury, and the court shall order the marshal to summon, either immediately or for a day fixed, from the body of the district, and not from the bystanders, a sufficient number of persons to complete the grand jury. And whenever a challenge to an individual grand juror is allowed, and there are not other jurors in attendance sufficient to complete

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the grand jury, the court shall make a like order to the marshal to summon a sufficient number of persons for that purpose. No indictment shall be found, nor shall any presentment be made without the concurrence of at least twelve grand jurors. From the persons summoned and accepted as grand jurors, the court shall appoint the foreman, who shall have power to administer oaths and affirmations to witnesses appearing before the grand jury.

67. When the offence charged be treason or a capital offence, the defendant shall be entitled to twenty, and the United States to five peremptory challenges. On a trial for any other offence in which the right of peremptory challenge now exists, the defendant shall be entitled to ten, and the United States to two peremptory challenges. All challenges, whether to the array or panel, or to individual jurors for cause or favor, shall be tried by the court, without the aid of triers.

68. In every case where any person convicted of any offence against the United States shall be sentenced to imprisonment for a period longer than one year, it shall be lawful for the court by which the sentence is passed to order the same to be executed in any state prison or penitentiary within the district or state where such court is held, the use of which prison or penitentiary is allowed by the legislature of such state for such purposes; and the expenses attendant upon the execution of such sentence shall be paid by the United States.

69. Juvenile offenders against the laws of the United States, being under the age of sixteen years, and who may hereafter be convicted of crime by any court of the United States, the punishment whereof shall be imprisonment, shall be confined during the term of sentence in some house of refuge to be designated by the secretary of the inte rior, and shall be transported and delivered to the warden or keeper of such house of refuge, by the marshal of the district where such shall have occurred; or, if such conviction be had in the District of Columbia, then and in such case, the transportation and delivery shall be by the warden of the jail of said district. And the reasonable actual expense of the transportation, necessary subsistence and hire, and transportation of assistants and the marshal or warden, only, shall be paid by the secretary of the interior, out of the judiciary fund.

70. It shall be the duty of the secretary of the interior to contract with the managers or persons having control of such houses of refuge, for the imprisonment, subsistence and proper employment of all such juvenile offenders, and to give the several courts of the United States and of the District of Columbia notice of the places so provided for the confinement of said offenders; and such offenders shall be sentenced to confinement in the house of refuge nearest the place of conviction, so designated by the secretary of the interior.

71. If any offence shall be committed in any place which has been, or shall hereafter be ceded to and under the jurisdiction of the United States, which offence is not prohibited, or the punishment thereof is not specially provided for by any law of the United States, such offence shall, upon conviction in any court of the United States having cognisance thereof, be liable to and receive the same punishment as the laws of the state in which such place is or may be situated, now in force, provide for the like offence when committed within the jurisdiction of such state; and no subsequent repeal of any such state law shall affect any prosecution for such offence in any of the courts of the United States.

72. All prisoners who have been or shall hereafter be convicted of any offence against the laws of the United States, and confined in any state prison or penitentiary in execution of the judgment or sentence upon such conviction, who so conduct themselves that no charge for misconduct shall be sustained against them, shall have a deduction of one month in each year made from the term of their sentence, and shall be entitled to their discharge so much the sooner, upon the certificate of the warden or keeper of such prison or penitentiary, with the approval of the secretary of the interior.

73. No person shall be prosecuted, tried or punished for the capital offences set forth in the act to which this act is in addition, (a) unless the indictment for the same is found by a grand jury within five years after such capital offence is committed.

74. This act shall take effect from and after its passage, and its provisions shall be applicable equally to offences committed within three years before and offences committed after its passage.

75. Whenever a judgment of death has been, or shall hereafter be rendered in any court of the United States, and the case has been, or shall hereafter be carried to the supreme court of the United States by appeal or writ of error, in pursuance of law, it shall be the duty of the court rendering such judgment, by order of court, to postpone

(a) 1 vol. 222, pl. 107, 109.

the execution thereof, from time to time and from term to term, until the mandate of the 8 March 1869. supreme court in such case shall have been received and entered upon the records of the lower court; and in case such judgment is affirmed by the supreme court, it shall be the duty of the court rendering the original judgment to appoint a day for the execution thereof; and in case of reversal by the supreme court, such further proceedings shall be had in the lower court as the supreme court may direct.

15 Stat. 340.

tended in the

76. The time for finding indictments in the courts of the United States in the late 3 March 1869 2 1. rebel states, for offences cognisable by said courts, and which may have been committed since said states went into rebellion, be and hereby is extended for the period of two Limitation exyears from and after the time when said states are or may be restored to representation states lately in in congress: Provided, however, That the provisions hereof shall not apply to treason rebellion. or other political offences.

1. Issue of notes authorized. To be a legal tender.

2. Additional amount of legal tender notes.

Currency.

3. Further issue of legal tender notes. Reissue thereof. 4. Fractional notes.

5. Penalty for issuing notes of less than one dollar.

6. Penalty for issuing similitudes of United States notes, &c.

7. For printing advertisements on notes, &c.

12 Stat. 532.

authorized.

1. The secretary of the treasury is hereby authorized to issue, in addition to the 11 July 1862 ? 1. amounts heretofore authorized, on the credit of the United States, one hundred and fifty millions of dollars of United States notes, not bearing interest, payable to bearer at the Issue of notes treasury of the United States, and of such denominations as he may deem expedient: (a) Provided, That no note shall be issued for the fractional part of a dollar, and not more than thirty-five millions shall be of lower denominations than five dollars. And such notes shall be receivable in payment of all loans made to the United States, and of all To be a legal taxes, internal duties, excises, debts and demands of every kind due to the United States, (b) except duties on imports and interest, and of all claims and demands against the United States, except for interest upon bonds, notes and certificates of debt or deposit; and shall also be lawful money and a legal tender in payment of all debts, public and private, within the United States, except duties on imports and interest, as aforesaid. (c)

tender.

12 Stat. 822.

Additional amount of legal tender notes.

2. That the secretary of the treasury be and he is hereby authorized, if required by 17 Jan. 1863 1. the exigencies of the public service, to issue on the credit of the United States, the sum of one hundred millions of dollars of United States notes, in such form as he may deem expedient, (d) not bearing interest, payable to bearer on demand, and of such denominations, not less than one dollar, as he may prescribe; which notes so issued shall be lawful money and a legal tender, like the similar notes heretofore authorized, in payment of all debts, public and private, within the United States, except for duties on imports and interest on the public debt.

12 Stat. 710.

3. That the secretary of the treasury be and he is hereby authorized, if required by 3 March 1863 ? 3. the exigencies of the public service, for the payment of the army and navy, and other creditors of the government, to issue on the credit of the United States, the sum of one Further issue of legal tender hundred and fifty millions of dollars of United States notes, including the amount of such notes heretofore authorized by the joint resolution, approved January 17th. 1863, in such form as he may deem expedient, not bearing interest, payable to bearer, and

(a) These acts are given as forms of those authorizing the issue of legal tender notes; the phraseology of these acts is so nearly identical, that the insertion of them, in the Digest, at length, would be a useless repetition. The act 25 February 1862, 12 Stat. 345, authorized the issue of $150,000,000 of such notes; the act 11 July 1862. 12 Stat. 532, provided for a further sum of $150,000,000; the act 17 January 1863, 12 Stat. 822, for $100,000,000 additional; the act 3 March 1863, 12 Stat. 710, authorized the issue of $400,000,000 of interest-bearing notes, and $150,000,000 of noninterest-bearing notes, to include those authorized by the act 17 January 1863; and the act 30 June 1864, 13 Stat. 218, a further issue of $200,000,000 of interest-bearing notes.

(b) This does not embrace taxes imposed by state authority. Lane County v. Oregon, 7 Wall. 71; Whiteaker v. Haley, 2 Oregon 129. (c) These acts have been held to be constitutional. Shollenberger v. Brinton, 52 Penn. St. 9; Metropolitan Bank v. Van Dyck, 27 N. Y. 400; Latham v. United States, 1 N. & H. 149. But the question has not yet been determined by the supreme court of the United States, where it has been argued and held under advisement. They do not affect contracts specifically payable in coin. Bronson v. Rodes, 7 Wall. 229; Butler v. Horwitz, Ibid. 258; Essex Co. v. Pacific Mills, 14 Allen 389; Sears v. Dewing, Ibid. 413; Dutton v. Pailaret, 52 Penn. St. 109; Rankine v. Demott, 26 Leg. Int. 212; Baker v. Baker, 16 Pitts. L. J. 33; Trecartin v. The Rochambeau, 26 Law Rep. 564; Gladstone v. Chamberlain, 4 VOL. II.-12

notes.

Int. R. Rec. 130; s. c. 1 Am. L. Rev. 587. And see Councer v. The Griffin, 14 Am. L. R. 45; Gordon v. The Mary J. Vaughan, 7 Int. R. Rec. 12; Cheang Kee v. United States, 3 Wall. 320; Quinn v. Lloyd, 2 Balt. L. Tr. 760; Cushing v. Wells, 98 Mass. 550. Whether they have any retroactive effect as to prior contracts, is also an unsettled question; the words "all debts public and private," do not necessarily include prior debts; and a statute should be interpreted so as to operate prospectively only, unless the language be so clear as to preclude all question as to the intention of the legislature. Taylor v. Mitchell, 57 Penn. St. 209; Dewart v. Purdy, 29 Penn. St. 113. The act of 1866 provides that an unstamped instrument shall not be admitted in evidence "in any court," and yet these general words have been held not to include the state courts. Carpenter v. Snelling, 97 Mass. 452; Craig v. Dimock, 9 Int. R. Rec. 129. And Grier, J., says, that as this is the first time this high prerogative of sovereignty has been exer cised, the legal tender acts should be construed strictly. "It is doubtful in policy, and dangerous as a precedent." Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Co. v. Morrison, 21 Leg. Int. 373. The notes issued under these acts, are not taxable by the states. Bank v. Supervisors, 7 Wall. 26.

(d) By act 7 April 1866, no portrait or likeness of any living person is to be placed upon any of the bonds, securities, notes, fractional or postal currency of the United States. 14 Stat. 25.

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