United States v. Graves

• Decision Date: 17 December 1892
• Citation: 53 F. 634
• Parties: UNITED STATES v. GRAVES.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Iowa

53 F. 634

UNITED STATES v. GRAVES.

United States District Court, N.D. Iowa, Eastern Division.

December 17, 1892

[Copyrighted Material Omitted]

M. D O'Connell, U.S. Dist. Atty., (William Graham, special counsel,) for the United States.

C. C Cole and Powers, Lacy & Brown, for defendant.

WOOLSON District Judge, (charging jury.)

I congratulate you that your labors in this case are so nearly ended; and I desire to assure you that the court heartily appreciates your prompt and interested attendance, and the careful attention you have given to the evidence as it has been introduced before you during this lengthy trial. Thus far your conduct has abundantly justified the system of jurisprudence which has as one of its most valued elements the trial by jury. In every civilized land the right of any man, charged with crime, to a trial by jury, is held sacred. In this great nation of ours, this sacred right is assured by the fundamental law of the land, our national constitution; and I hold it to be as much the duty of a good citizen to serve his country in time of peace, when summoned to act in the capacity of juror, as it is a good citizen's duty to respond to her call when her safety and honor are imperiled by domestic violence, or her flag assailed by a foreign foe. So long as the intelligent citizenship of the nation, with a courage which dares rightly to decide, and an integrity which cannot be cajoled or corrupted from a true verdict, shall constitute the juries of our courts, so long may we confidently expect our courts shall be the protection of innocence and the terror of evil doers.

In the system of jurisprudence obtaining with us, a trial, in cases like the one now on hearing, has a twofold division, each part having its separate duty to perform. The court is charged with the duty of determining the law governing the case, and of superintending the admission of evidence upon which the facts involved are to be decided, while the jury is charged with the duty of deciding the facts as the evidence shall enlighten them. You will thus observe that the jury is a most important arm of the law in the administration of our criminal jurisprudence, and that the efficiency of that jurisprudence depends no less on the faithful and honest action of the jury than upon the honest and intelligent action of the court. Indeed, as a general statement, it is unquestionably true that with the juries of our country, even in a larger degree than with the judges of our courts, rests the responsibility of determining whether the laws shall be obeyed, and their violations punished. The judge, however heartily he may desire the law enforced and crime sent to its deserved punishment, is powerless to convict the criminal unless the jury shall join in that desire, and return their verdict of guilty, when crime has been proven before them; so that the honest jury not only stand as a bulwark against unjust punishment of innocent men, but as well the protection of the nation against freedom to crime and impunity to criminals. When, therefore, judge and jury unite in earnestly upholding the law and punishing its violation, honest men are safe, while crime-committers are made to tremble.

By the oaths you have taken, you are bound a true verdict in this case to render, on the evidence introduced before you, applying thereto the law as it shall be given you by the court. As a jury, you are to be no respecter of persons. Whether the defendant has high social standing and influence and wealth, and be entrenched with powerful friends, or possesses none of these desirable conditions, but, instead, be a man of low degree and acquainted with poverty, he is to receive at your hands the same honest, intelligent, courageous consideration, with reference to the facts proven. See to it, gentlemen, that as you expect to answer at the last great day, when the secrets of all hearts are made known, see to it that your consciences shall discharge you in this case, in the sincere and impartial performance of your duty, from the obligations of the oaths you have taken.

The court is no less bound to impartially administer the law. Every judge of a United States court, as he enters upon his office, is sworn thus to discharge his duties. Let me read to you what that oath is:

'I do solemnly swear that I will administer justice without respect to persons, and do equal right to the poor and to the rich, and that I will faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all the duties devolving on me according to the best of my abilities and understanding, agreeably to the constitution and laws of the United States, so help me God.'

By this oath the judge is bound to see that justice is administered, and that the right prevails. I can say to you, gentlemen, without reservation, that this has been my sole wish and desire in this trial, now so near its close.

The defendant, Rufus E. Graces, stands charged with having violated the law relating to his duty as president and director of a national banking association, viz. the Commercial National Bank of Dubuque, in that he made certain false entries in certain reports to the comptroller of the currency. In your investigations in this case, bear constantly in mind, gentlemen, that the defendant is not upon trial upon any charge of embezzling or misapplying funds of the bank, nor upon any charge of having by himself, or with others, plundered or wrecked the bank; and you cannot base your verdict herein upon any other charge than that set forth in the counts of the indictment submitted to you. The indictment confines this trial to the matters of alleged false entries, averred to have been made with intent to defraud or deceive, as charged. And whether the defendant did or did not properly manage or direct, or assist in managing or directing, the general affairs of the bank, and whether or not said bank failed, are matters wholly immaterial in this trial, except in such particulars as may in these instructions be treated upon and applied to the charge of making said false entries, and only so far as the same may be so treated and applied as bearing on the intent of the defendant.

The national banking act is of comparatively recent enactment. The system of national banks grew out of the necessities of our nation during the war of the Rebellion. At a period in that terrible and costly war when the armies of the nation were in the field and its navies rode the waves, when revenue greatly in excess of that coming into the national treasury became absolutely necessary to the maintenance of our armed forces and of the government at home and abroad,--at a time when the very existence of the nation, and the suppression of the armed foes warring upon it and assailing our flag, seemed almost to depend on the power of the government immediately to provide greatly enlarged financial resources,-- the financial statesmen of the nation devised this plan, which, with subsequent amendments, has crystalized into the present national banking law. I but voice the general sentiment of every man who has carefully investigated the present national banking system which I state that it is one of the best, if not the best, banking system the human intellect has ever devised. It is rightly called a 'national' banking law. Having its inception in the necessities of the nation, and its foundation in the statutes enacted by the national lawmaking power, congress so broadly laid its foundation that it applies and extends to the farthest boundaries of the nation, and yet is at the very door of any community desiring to avail itself of the benefits found in the system. And congress, intending it should be national in extent, has placed it under national, or, as the term is sometimes used, federal, charter and federal supervision; so that this system is under federal, as distinguished from state, supervision. Upon the courts of the United States, and not upon the courts of the several states, is conferred the duty and power of investigating and punishing crimes or violations of the provisions of this law.

Anticipating that in almost every settled part of the nation these national banking associations would spring up, as their security and desirability should be made manifest, congress carefully surrounded these associations by every barrier against dishonesty, fraud, and corruption which the ingenuity of its members could devise; for it was apparent that into the treasuries of these national banks would be deposited, not only the surplus of the capitalist, but as well the hard-earned wage of labor. Disaster befalling one of these banks must of necessity bring close in its train widespread ruin in the community; business men and business enterprises whose financial interests were involved in these banks would go down with the bank; and the savings of years of self-denial, the dependence of the widow and the support of the orphan, would be swept away in the common disaster. Recognizing that, when prudent and conservative management controls a national bank, failure is improbable, and dishonesty in bank management rarely fails to work the bank's downfall, and that the task is extremely difficult to provide by law against the fraud and corruption of designing men, congress wisely enacted laws of a most stringent character, whereby they hoped to prevent malfeasance in bank management; and congress therein provided for the punishment of those bank officials and employes who, forgetting the high trust placed within their charge, plundered the funds they were set to guard, and wrecked the banks they had been selected and had sworn to conserve and protect.

In addition to the financial responsibility imposed by the statute upon the individual stockholders, which in...