Wiborg v. United States, 986

• Decision Date: 25 May 1896
• Docket Number: No. 986,986
• Parties: WIBORG et al. v. UNITED STATES. 1
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

163 U.S. 632

16 S.Ct. 1127

41 L.Ed. 289

WIBORG et al.

v UNITED STATES.¹

No. 986.

May 25, 1896.

Wiborg, the captain, and Petersen and Johansen, the mates, of the steamer Horsa, were indicted in the district court of the United States for the Eastern district of Pennsylvania, under section 5286 of the Revised Statutes. The indictment charged that defendants, 'mariners, at the district aforesaid, and within the jurisdiction of this court, did, within the territory and jurisdiction of the United States, to wit, at the port of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, within the district aforesaid, begin, set on foot, and provide and prepare the means for a certain military expedition and enterprise to be carried on from thence against the territory and dominions of a foreign prince, to wit, against the Island of Cuba, the said Island of Cuba being then and there the territory and dominions of the king of Spain, the said United States being then and there at peace with the king of Spain, contrary to the form of the act of congress in such case made and provided, and against the peace and dignity of the United States of America.' They were tried before Judge Butler and a jury, and convicted. Motions in arrest of judgment and for a new trial were severally made and overruled, and defendants were sentenced to pay fines and to serve terms in the state penitentiary. This writ of error was thereupon sued out, and defendants admitted to bail.

The Horsa was a Danish steamer, sailing under the Danish flag, and defendant Wiborg, its captain, was a subject of the king of Denmark, as were also his co-defendants, as claimed by their counsel.

The Horsa was engaged in the fruit business for John D. Hart & Co., of Philadelphia, and on November 9, 1895, cleared from Philadelphia for Port Antonio, Jamaica. She had on board but little cargo, consisting of two lifeboats, a lot of empty boxes and barrels, two horses, some horse feed, bales of hay, and boxes of corm, all of which were entered on her manifest. Just before sailing, Capt. Wiborg received a message (in writing, but not produced), which, he said, was: 'After I passed the Breakwater, to proceed north near Barnegat, and await further orders.' The Horsa sailed between 6 and 7 p. m., and, after passing the Delaware Breakwater, her proper course would be southward. She turned, however, to the northward, went up the Jersey coast to Barnegat Light, and anchored on the high seas, between three and four miles off the shore. Between 10 and 11 the same evening, the steam lighter J. S. T. Stranahan sailed from Brooklyn, carrying some cases of goods and two lifeboats, which had been put on board by the crew of the lighter during the evening. On the lower bay of New York, below Staten Island, during the night, she took on board between 30 and 40 passengers, mostly dark-complexioned men, speaking a foreign language, apparently Cubans or Spaniards. The lighter then ran down to Barnegat, where she saw the Horsa under a white flag. She also ran up a white flag, went alongside, and put aboard her passengers, with the cases of goods and the lifeboats. They brought authority in writing from John D. Hart & Co., which was not produced. Capt. Wiborg saw the transfer made, and assented to it. His firemen complaining, he answered: 'I told them, if anybody had to hang for this, I would be the man to hang for it.' He testified that the man on the lighter brought him a message from John D. Hart & Co. 'He told me to take those men and lug age and whatever they had aboard the Horsa, and let them off whenever they called for it to be let off. I shipped two boats at the same time, and the order of my message was to deliver those two boats to those men, and the two boats that I had shipped here in Philadelphia. * * * The only order was they had a colored man there that they called the 'pilot,' and, whenever he called for them to be let off, I should let them off, and give them the boats.' As to the boats taken on at Philadelphia and those taken on off Barnegat, he was 'to deliver them to these men as soon as they called for them. * * * The pilot did not tell me where he was going. I did talk to him, but he could talk very little English.' The captain testified that the writing from J. D. Hart & Co. 'to take whatever was in the tug, the men and their luggage and boxes, and let them off whenever they called for it to be let off,' did not strike him as an unusual thing. It did not strike him as unusual 'that these men were to be taken on board, and turned out on the sea with the boats.' It appeared and was admitted that there was an insurrection in Cuba. The captain was informed that the party was going to Cuba, and believed the men were going to fight for Cuba, but was careful to ask no questions, and testified that he considered his own part in the affair to be lawful. The charter party was not produced.

After boarding the Horsa, these persons broke open the boxes which they had brought with them, and took out rifles, swords, and machetes, and one cannon. They also had cartridge belts, medicines, and bandages with them. They were not in uniform, but there was evidence that some of them had caps with a little flag, which they said was a Cuban flag. They brought their own food with them. The evidence tended to show that, when these men divided up the arms, every man had a rifle; that certain of them, understood to be officers, had swords and revolvers; that one seemed to be in command of them; and that this commander asked some of the crew whether they would fight if attacked by a Spanish gunboat. There was also some evidence that there were military exercises in the nature of drilling by from three to seven men at a time; that these persons stated that they were going to Cuba to fight the Spaniards; that, on the second day out, they made small canvas bags to put cartridges in, and unpacked a bale of blankets which they had brought with them, wrapped 150 spare rifles in these blankets in small bundles, about 5 in each, and threw the boxes overboard in which the rifles had come, taking a rifle, sword, and machete apiece, and practicing with them and the cannon. There were three kinds of cartridges and two kinds of rifles. One witness stated that, as he was informed by them, there were small Winchesters for the cavalry, and big rifles for the infantry; big revolvers for the officers; and that the cannon was a Maxim gun, in charge of a French Canadian. This machine gun was worked with a slot and a crank, and had its own cartridges. The witness saw it worked, and saw them practicing with it, and the man in charge showed him how they were doing it. Some testimony was introduced on behalf of defendants to the effect that a machete is generally carried by the inhabitants of the West Indies, and has many peaceful uses. One of the defendants' witnesses admitted that it was a formidable weapon, and, moreover, that he had never seen citizens carry guns in Cuba. It is unquestioned that the machete is used for both war and peace, it being described in the Century Dictionary as a 'heavy knife or cutlass, used among Spanish colonists and Spanish American countries, both as a tool and as a weapon,' and by Webster as 'a large, heavy knife, resembling a broadsword, often two or three feet in length, used by the inhabitants of Spanish America as a hatchet to cut their way through thickets, and for various other purposes.'

After leaving Barnegat, the Horsa took the usual course for Jamaica, which follows he Cuban coast for about six hours. The usual color of her funnel was yellow below with red above and black on top, and it was so painted when she left Philadelphia. While she was at sea, the funnel was repainted red and black, and, when she returned to Philadelphia, it was black, red, and yellow. The name of the Horsa was painted out amidships, but her name was on the stern in brass letters and on the bow, and those letters were not painted over to the captain's knowledge. About six miles off the coast of Cuba, the colored pilot gave orders to disembark. This was about 11 o'clock at night, and the disembarkation was conducted under the supervision of Capt. Wiborg, who had the lights of the vessel put out. The two boats were launched which had come on board at Philadelphia, and also those which had come with the lighter, and Capt. Wiborg sold the men one of the ship's boats. As one of the boats leaked, another was lowered from the ship. The passengers took to the boats, taking with them all the ammunition and arms they could carry. The steamer then undertook to tow the boats, but a strange light was seen in the distance, and, at the request of the men, the captain cut the boats loose, and started away at full speed. Some 40 boxes of cartridges had been left on the Horsa, because there was no room for them on the boats; and Capt. Wiborg directed that these should be thrown overboard. He said this was to avoid getting into trouble at Port Antonio, since the boxes were not manifested for that port. The Horsa then completed her voyage to Port Antonio. The captain said he told the collector there he had lost two boats, 'to put him off his guard.'

Defendants' counsel requested the court to give to the jury 13 points or instructions, of which the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, and eleventh were as follows:

'(4) That the laws of the United States and the section under which the defendants are indicted do not prohibit transporting of arms or of military equipments to a foreign country, or forbid one or more individuals, singly or in unarmed association, from leaving the United States for the purpose of joining in any military operations which are being carried on between other countries, or between different parties in the same country.

'(5) That, before the jury can find the defendants guilty under this indictment, they must first find that there was a 'military expedition or enterprise' against the territory of the king...