United States v. One Hundred & Twenty-Nine Packages

27 F. Cas. 284
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Missouri
DecidedSeptember 15, 1862
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 27 F. Cas. 284 (United States v. One Hundred & Twenty-Nine Packages) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. One Hundred & Twenty-Nine Packages, 27 F. Cas. 284 (E.D. Mo. 1862).

Opinion

TREAT, District Judge.

The facts submitted in this case are substantially these: The' claimant,- proposing to make a shipment of merchandise to Memphis in the state of Tennessee, applied to the surveyor of the port of St. Louis for a permit, under the regulations of the secretary of the treasury, pursuant to the act of July 13, 1861 [12 Stat. 255]. He represented that the proposed shipment contained, among other things, 100 barrels of cement. A “permit” having been granted for the specified goods, the claimant sent on board of a steamer) bound for Memphis, said 100 barrels and the 129 packages now in litigation. The surveyor caused said shipment to be examined after it was on board of said steamer, and whilst she still lay at the wharf here, and detected, that instead "of 100 barrels of cement, there were 100 barrels of whiskey [285]*285packed in cement for the purpose of concealing the same. Thereupon the whole shipment was seized.

The agreement of the facts, as filed, states that Memphis, the port of destination, is not now “in a condition of hostilities” against the United States, and that it is “occupied and controlled by forces of the United States, engaged in the dispersion of the insurgents.” The claimant does not interpose a claim for the 100 barrels of cement and the whiskey packed therein, but solely for the 129 packages which contain no prohibited goods.

The first proposition urged by his proctor is that the statute of July 13,1861, is a penal statute, in derogation of common right, and consequently it is to be strictly construed. Common right, it must be observed, requires the bonds of society to be preserved so as to prevent anarchy, and the consequent destruction of all safeguards for persons and property. Every member of society is directly interested in its preservation. Governments are instituted for the common good; and when a blow is aimed thereat, every citizen’s rights are assailed. Measures adopted for the common safety are therefore, generally construed liberally, or so as to effect the proposed object The theory upon which that rule depends was fully considered in this court in the cases of U. S. v. The Hannibal [Case No. 15,298]; Same v. Champion [Id. 14,779], decided at the November term, 1861. The statute of July 13, 1861, being a revenue statute, is to be construed according to the rules governing such acts, and not as a mere penal enactment. In the case of Taylor v. U. S. 3 How, [44 U. S.] 210, the supreme court of the United States held: “In one sense every law imposing a penalty or forfeiture may be deemed a penal law; in another sense such laws are often deemed, and truly deserve to be called, remedial. The judge was, therefore, strictly accurate when he stated (in the court below) that ‘it must not be understood that every law which imposes a penalty is therefore, legally speaking, a penal law— that is, a law which is to be construed with great strictness in favor of the defendant. Laws enacted for the prevention of fraud, for the suppression of a public wrong, or to effect a public good, are not in the strict sense penal acts, although they may inflict a penalty for violating them.’ And he added: ‘It is in this light I view the revenue laws, and I would construe them so as most effectually to accomplish the intention of the legislature in passing them.’ The same distinction will be found recognized in the elementary writers; as, for example, in Blackstone’s Commentaries (1 Bl. Comm. 88); Bae. Abr. ‘Statutes’ 1, 7, 8; Com. Dig. ‘Parliament’ R. 13, 19, 20; and it is also abundantly supported by authorities.” Similar decisions may be found in The Harmony [Case No. 6,081]; [Sundry Goods v. U. S.] 2 Pet. [27 U. S.] 358; [Wilkinson v. Leland] Id. 627; [Wood v. U. S.] 16 Pet [41 U. S.] 342. The justice of that rule was, in the cases referred to as decided November term, 3861, fully discussed by this court in the light of right reason, of the nature, objects, and necessity of social and governmental organization, and also of the essential elements of individual safety and happiness. Surely such statutes, adopted for the existence of government against armed efforts for its overthrow, upon the faithful observance of which the peace of society depends, should receive such a construction as will according to their scope and object effect the public end designed. Hence, in the interpretation of the act of July 13, 1861, courts are bound to give to it no such narrow and technical construction as may defeat its salutary purposes. Allegiance is a primary tie, and treason the greatest of crimes; for inasmuch as allegiance is the bond by which society exists, so the breach of that allegiance by direct overt acts, is an attempt to dissolve social and governmental organization, reducing society to chaos—a condition in which moral, as well as political, obligations give way to physical force and blind passion. The right of each and all, or “common right,” is not assailed when constitutional and remedial measures are adopted for the common good. The history of the existing Rebellion fully illustrates the doctrine. The untold calamities it has devolved upon all citizens of the republic, are too keenly felt to need exposition.

But whatever rule of interpretation is adopted in this case, the same result will follow. The claimant admits that he undertook a fraud upon the law. If the act of July 13, 1S61, was either an ordinary revenue act, or a simple penal act, he would still fall within its provisions. He chose for fraudulent purposes to mix up with unpro-hibited goods, those directly prohibited. He knew that the vast interests at stake, civil and military, would admit of no relaxation of the interdict against intercourse under the act of congress and the president’s proclamation, so far at least as the shipping of whiskey to the insurrectionary states, and to our camps there, was concerned; yet for his individual gain he was willing, not only to jeopardize those public interests, but to do so by a resort to falsehood and fraud. There can be no pretence that he was actuated by any higher motive than a sordid lust of gain, which ignored all considerations of law or justice. He knew that he was violating the law; and he attempted to defraud the government, not in the matter of dollars and cents alone. Still he appears before the court with the strange request, to have it unravel for him the tangled skein of fraud which he has deliberately woven, and then restore to his possession such parts as would have been untainted if he had not wound them into one promiscuous mass. No principle known to law or equity tolerates such [286]*286a procedure. He has mixed up the good with the bad, and the mass must be treated as he has voluntarily made it. Neither at common law, nor in equity, would a court aid in such unclean work. In international law, as illustrated in prize cases, the owner of a contraband cargo never receives restitution of any portion of it, when thus tainted with fraud against the belligerent. It is a universal maxim, in every department of jurisprudence, “ex turpi causa, aut ex dolo malo, aut ex maleficio, non oritur actio;” and in admiralty every claimant is an actor. If he cannot establish his claim, except through fraud, he is left in the position he assumed. [La Nereyda] 8 Wheat. [21 U. S.] 147; [The Venus] 8 Cranch [12 U. S.] 276, [The Sally] Id. 382; [U. S. v. One Thousand Nine Hundred and Sixty Bags of Coffee] Id. 398; [The Bello Corrunes] 6 Wheat. [19 U. S.] 169; [U. S. v. Four Hundred and Twenty Two Casks of Wine] 1 Pet. [26 U. S.] 547; [The Palmyra] 12 Wheat. [25 U. SJ 1; [U. S. v. Three Hundred and Fifty Chests of Tea] Id. 486; [Murray v. The Charming Betsy] 2 Cranch [6 U. S.] 72; 3 Phil. Ins. § 276; 1 Duer, Ins. 594, 625 ; 6 C. Rob. Adm.

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Bluebook (online)
27 F. Cas. 284, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-one-hundred-twenty-nine-packages-moed-1862.