United States v. Mathew Gradwell No 683 United States v. Charles Hambly No 684 United States v. Edward Toole No 775 United States v. Edward Toole No 776 776

• Decision Date: 09 April 1917
• Docket Number: Nos. 683,775,684,s. 683
• Citation: 61 L.Ed. 857,37 S.Ct. 407,243 U.S. 476
• Parties: UNITED STATES, Plff. in Err., v. MATHEW T. GRADWELL et al. NO 683. UNITED STATES, Plff. in Err., v. CHARLES HAMBLY et al. NO 684. UNITED STATES, Plff. in Err., v. EDWARD O'TOOLE et al. NO 775. UNITED STATES, Plff. in Err., v. EDWARD O'TOOLE et al. NO 776. , and 776
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

243 U.S. 476

37 S.Ct. 407

61 L.Ed. 857

UNITED STATES, Plff. in Err.,

v MATHEW T. GRADWELL et al.

NO 683.

UNITED STATES, Plff. in Err.,

v. CHARLES HAMBLY et al.

NO 684.

UNITED STATES, Plff. in Err.,

v. EDWARD O'TOOLE et al.

NO 775.

UNITED STATES, Plff. in Err.,

v. EDWARD O'TOOLE et al.

NO 776.

Nos. 683, 684, 775, and 776.

Argued March 16, 1917.

Decided April 9, 1917.

Assistant Attorney General Wallace for plaintiff in error.

Mr. Alexander L. Churchill for defendants in error in No. 683.

Messrs. Alexander L. Churchill, John W. Cummings, James T. Cummings, and John J. Fitzgerald for defendants in error in No. 684.

Messrs. John H. Holt and Luther C. Anderson for defendants in error in Nos. 775 and 776.

Mr. Justice Clarke delivered the opinion of the court:

These four cases were argued together because the indictments in the first three must be justified, it at all, under the same section (§ 37) of the Criminal Code of the United States [35 Stat. al L. 1096, chap. 321, Comp. Stat. 1913, § 10,201], while the fourth involves the application of § 19 of that Code to the same state of facts which we have in the third case.

In the Gradwell Case (No. 683) and in the Hambly Case (No. 684) the fourteen defendants are charged in the in- dictments with having conspired together 'to defraud the United States,' and to commit a wilful fraud upon the laws of the state of Rhode Island, by corrupting and debauching, by bribery of voters, the general election held on the 3d of November, 1914, at which a Representative in Congress was voted for and elected in the second congressional district of Rhode Island in the Gradwell Case, and in the first congressional district in the Hambly Case, thereby preventing 'a fair and clean' election.

No. 775 relates to the conduct of a primary election held in the state of West Virginia on the 6th of June, 1916, under a law of that state providing for a state-wide nomination of candidates for the United States Senate. In the indictment twenty defendants are charged with conspiring 'to defraud the United States in the matter of its governmental right to have a candidate of the true choice and preference of the Republican and Democratic parties nominated for said office and one of them elected,' by causing and procuring a large number of persons who had not resided in the state a sufficient length of time to entitle them to vote under the state law, to vote at the primary for a candidate named, and also to procure four hundred of such persons to vote more than once at such primary election.

The indictment in No. 776 charges that the same defendants named in No. 775 conspired together to 'injure and oppress' White, Sutherland, and Rosenbloom, three candidates for the Republican nomination for United States Senator who were voted for at the primary election held in West Virginia on June 6th, 1916, under a law of that state, by depriving them of the 'right and privilege of having each Republican voter vote, and vote once only, for some one' of the Republican candidates for such nomination, and of not having any votes counted at such election except such as were cast by Republican voters duly qualified under the West Virginia law. The charge is that the defendants conspired to accomplish this result by procuring a thousand persons, who were not qualified to vote under the state law, because they had not resided in that state a sufficient length of time, to vote for an opposing candidate, William F. Hite, and many of them to vote more than once, and to have their votes cast, counted, and returned as cast in favor of such candidate.

A demurrer to the indictment by each of the defendants in each case, on the ground that it fails to set forth any offense under the laws of the United States, was sustained by the district court of the district of Rhode Island in the first two cases and of the southern district of West Virginia in the third. The cases are here on error.

It is plain from the foregoing statement that the indictments in the first three cases are based solely upon the charge that the defendants conspired 'to defraud the United States,' in violation of § 37 of the Criminal Code, and that the indictment in No. 776 is based upon the charge that three candidates for the nomination for Senator of the United States were 'injured and oppressed,' within the meaning of § 19 of the Criminal Code, by a conspiracy on the part of the defendants to compass their defeat by causing illegal voting for an opposing party candidate at the primary election.

The applicable portions of §§ 37 and 19 are as follows:

'Section 37. If two or more persons conspire either to commit any offense against the United States, or to defraud the United States in any manner for any purpose, . . . each of the parties to such conspiracy shall be fined not more than ten thousand dollars, or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.

'Section 19. If two or more persons conspire to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any citizen in the free exercise of enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him by the Constitution or laws of the United States, or because of his having so exercised the same, . . . they shall be fined not more than five thousand dollars and imprisoned not more than ten years, and shall, moreover, be thereafter ineligible to any office, or place of honor, profit, or trust created by the Constitution or laws of the United States.'

The argument of counsel for plaintiff in error in the first three cases is that the United States government has the right to honest, free, and fair elections, that a conspiracy to corrupt electors by bribery has for its object the denial and defeat of this right, and that it therefore is a scheme to defraud the United States within the meaning of § 37. This presents for decision the questions:

Is § 37 of the Criminal Code applicable to congressional elections, and, if it is, has the United States such an interest or right in the result of such elections that to bribe electors constitutes a fraud upon the government within the meaning of this section?

To admit, as it must be admitted, that the people of the United States, and so their government, considered as a political entity, have an interest in and a right to honest and fair elections, advances us but little toward determining whether § 37 was enacted to protect that right, and whether a conspiracy to bribe voters is a violation of it. Obviously the government may have this right and yet not have enacted this law to protect it. It may be, as is claimed, that Congress intended to rely upon state laws and the administration of them by state officials to secure honest elections, and that this section was enacted for purposes wholly apart from those here claimed for it.

To answer the questions presented requires that we look to the origin and history of § 37, and that we consider what has been, and is now, the policy of Congress in dealing with the regulation of elections of Representatives in Congress.

Section 37 first appears as § 30 of 'An Act to Amend Existing Law Relating to Internal Revenue, and for Other Purposes.' enacted on March 2, 1867 (14 Stat. at L. p. 471, chap. 169, Comp. Stat. 1913, § 5895), and, except for an omitted not relevant provision, the section has continued from that time to this, in almost precisely its present form. It was carried into the revision of the United States Statutes of 1873-74 as § 5440 of chapter 5, the title of which is 'Crimes against Operations of the Government,' while another chapter, chapter 7 of the revision, deals with 'Crimes against the Elective Franchise and Civil Rights of Citizens.' Forty-two years after its first enactment the section was carried into the Criminal Code (in force on and after January 1st, 1910), where it now appears as § 37, again in a chapter, now chapter 4, devoted to 'Offenses against the Operation of the Government,' while chapter 3 of the Code deals with 'Offenses against the Elective Franchise and Civil Rights of Citizens.'

The section has been widely applied in the prosecution of frauds upon the revenue, in land cases, and to other operations of the government, and while no inference or presumption of legislative construction is to be drawn from the chapter headings under which it is found in the Criminal Code (§ 339), nevertheless the history of the origin, classification, and use made of the section, which we have just detailed, are not without significance, and taken with the fact that confessedly this is the first time that it has been attempted to extend its application to the conduct of elections, they suggest strongly that it was not intended by Congress for such a purpose.

Further aid in determining the application and construction of the section may be derived from the history of the conduct and policy of the government in dealing with congressional elections.

The power of Congress to deal with the election of Senators and Representatives is derived from § 4, article 1 of the Constitution of the United States, providing that:

'The times, places and manner of holding elections for Senators and Representatives shall be prescribed in each state by the legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by law, make or alter such regulations, except as to the places of choosing Senators.'

Whatever doubt may at one time have existed as to the extent of the power which Congress may exercise under this constitutional sanction in the prescribing of regulations for the conduct of elections for Representatives in Congress, or in adopting regulations which states have prescribed for that purpose, has been settled by repeated decisions of this court, in Ex parte Siebold, 100 U. S. 371, 391, 25 L. ed. 717, 724 (1879); Ex parte Clark, 100 U. S. 399, 25 L. ed. 715 (1879); Ex parte Yarbrough, 110 U. S. 651, 28 L. ed. 274, 4 Sup. Ct. Rep. 152 (1884); and in United States v. Mosley, 238 U. S. 383, 59 L. ed. 1355, 35 Sup. Ct. Rep. 904(...