United States v. Kane

• Decision Date: 26 January 1884
• Citation: 19 F. 42
• Parties: UNITED STATES v. KANE.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

19 F. 42

UNITED STATES v. KANE.

United States District Court, D. Oregon.

January 26, 1884

James F. Watson, for the United States.

George Kane, in propria persona.

DEADY J.

This is an information charging the defendant with a violation of section 3995 of the Revised Statutes, which provides that 'any person who shall knowingly and willfully obstruct or retard the passage of the mail, or any carriage, horse driver, or carrier, carrying the same, shall, for every such offense, be punishable by a fine of not more than $100. ' The defendant pleads 'not guilty,' and submits the case to the judgment of the court on the facts stated in the deposition of the witnesses, including his own, examined before the commissioner who committed him to answer the charge, and which, by the stipulation signed by the district attorney and the defendant, is to have the effect herein of a special verdict. From this it appears that on January 10 1884, there were at Pendleton, Oregon, about 150 discharged railway laborers, including the defendant, who had lately been employed by contractors in the construction of a railway in that vicinity, and wanted to come to Portland on the regular train of the Oregon Railway Navigation Company, then running between Pendleton and Portland, and carrying, among other things, the United States mail, without paying their passage, on the ground that they were without money, and the company ought to pass them down as it had passed them up which the conductor of the train refused to permit; that the defendant, acting as spokesman for himself and the crowd told the conductor that the train should not move without them, and that if he undertook to pull out and leave them behind, there would be trouble, and he would be hurt; that thereby the train with the United States mail in the postal car was detained at Pendelton until the next day, January 11th, when the conductor concluded and undertook to cut off the postal car containing the United States mail, then being carried thereon from Pendelton to Portland, and proceed with it to the latter place, as it was his duty to do, but the defendant forbade him to do so, and told him there would be trouble if he attempted to uncouple the car; and when the conductor, notwithstanding the threat, undertook to have the pin removed, and the mail car detached from the rest of the train for the purpose of proceeding with it to Portland, the defendant, backed by several of his associates, prevented the brakeman from taking out the pin, by putting his foot upon it, and threatening violence if the attempt was persisted in; but also, according to his own statement, saying that the conductor might take 'his mail, but if the train goes we are going with it,' whereby the passage of said mail, mail carriage, and carrier, was further obstructed and retarded until the arrival on the ground of a detachment of United States soldiers, and the arrest of the defendant by the deputy United States marshal.

In the case of U.S. v. Kirby, 7 Wall. 482, the defendant was charged with arresting the carrier of the mail, and detaining the steam-boat on which it was being carried for that purpose. The defendant, in his plea to the indictment alleged that he made such at rest as sheriff, upon a lawful warrant charging the carrier with murder, and without any intent or purpose to obstruct the mail or the passage of the steamer. Upon a demurrer to this plea, the judges in the court below were divided in opinion as to whether the conduct of the defendant constituted, under the circumstances, an obstruction of the mail within the meaning of the act of congress, and certified the question to the supreme court. The court answered the question in the...