United States v. John Mills

• Citation: 7 Pet. 138,8 L.Ed. 636,32 U.S. 138
• Parties: UNITED STATES v. JOHN B. MILLS
• Decision Date: 01 January 1833
• Court: United States Supreme Court

32 U.S. 138

7 Pet. 138

8 L.Ed. 636

UNITED STATES v. JOHN B. MILLS.

January Term, 1833

CERTIFICATE of Division from the Circuit Court of North Carolina. The defendant was indicted, at the term of November 1832, of the circuit court, for an offence against the post-office laws, passed on the 2d of March 1824, entitled, 'an act to reduce into one act the several acts establishing and regulating the post-office department.'

The indictment contained two counts. The first count charged, that the defendant did, 'at Fayetteville, on the 1st June 1832, procure, advise and assist Joseph I. Straughan to secrete, embezzle and destroy a mail of letters, with which the said Joseph I. Straughan was intrusted, and which had come to his possession, and was intended to be conveyed by post, from Pittsborough, in the district aforesaid, to Fayetteville, also in said district, containing bank-notes; the said Joseph I. Straughan being, at the time of such procuring, advising and assisting, then and there, a person employed in one of the departments of the post-office establishment, to wit, a carrier of the mail of the United States from Pittsborough aforesaid, to Fayetteville aforesaid, contrary to the form of the act of congress,' &c.

The second count was in the following words: That the defendant 'did procure, advise and assist Joseph I. Straughan to secrete, embezzle and destroy a letter addressed by Joseph Small to Joseph Baker, with which the said Joseph I. Straughan was intrusted, and which came to his possession, and was intended to be conveyed by post from Pittsborough, in the district aforesaid, to Fayetteville aforesaid, containing sundry bank-notes, amounting, in the whole, to sixty dollars, of a denomination to the jurors aforesaid unknown, and of the issue of a bank to the said jurors also unknown; the said Joseph I. Straughan being, at the time of such procuring, advising and assisting, then and there, a person employed in one of the departments of the post-office establishment, to wit, a carrier of the mail of the United States from Pittsborough aforesaid, to Fayetteville aforesaid, contrary to the form of the act of congress, &c.

The jury found the defendant guilty on both counts; and a motion was made in arrest of judgment on the following grounds: 1. That the indictment doth not aver charge or in any manner show, that the said Joseph I. Straughan did commit the offence which this defendant is alleged to have procured and advised and assisted him to commit. 2. That the said indictment is, in other respects, uncertain, insufficient, informal and defective, and will, in no sort, warrant any judgment upon the said verdict.

Upon this motion, the following certificate of division was given: 'The defendant was indicted upon the 24th section of the act of congress approved the 2d of March 1825, entitled an act to reduce into one the several acts establishing and regulating the post-office department, for advising, procuring and assisting one Joseph I. Straughan, mail-carrier, to rob the mail, and being found guilty, submitted a motion in arrest of judgment: one reason in support of which motion was that the indictment did not sufficiently show any offence against the said act, because the same did not directly charge, or otherwise aver, that the said Joseph I. Straughan did actually rob the mail, and, upon argument, the judges were opposed in opinion upon this question, to wit, whether an indictment grounded upon the said statute, for advising, &c., a mail-carrier to rob the mail, ought to set forth or aver that the said carrier did, in fact, commit the offence of robbing the mail, and therefore, the judges directed the same to be certified to the supreme court.

The case was argued for the United States by the Attorney-General, Mr. Taney; no counsel appeared for the defendant. He stated, that the charge, so far as it is material to the question submitted to the court in the certificate of division, is contained in the first count; 'that the defendant did procure, advise and assist' the mail-carrier to secrete, embezzle and destroy the mail of the United States. In neither count is there an averment that the offence of secreting, embezzling or destroying the mail was actually committed. But as the offence charged is a misdemeanor, all are principals; and the law which requires that before the accessory can be convicted, the principal must be proved to have been guilty, and the offence to have been committed, does not apply. As this is a...