Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 1.djvu/426

 4rl8 FEDERAL REPORTER. �Bion of any and ail letters addressed to the complainant, aa well as ail such as may hereafter be addressed to Mm and received at her office. �In her answer defendant bases her refusai upon certain instructions f rom the postmaster general, directing the deten- tion of letters addresssed to the complainant. She denies that the laws of the United States, or the regulations of the department, require the delivery of such letters, and charges, upon information and belief, that ail of said letters are letters and communications about and concerning a lottery known as "The Commonwealth Distribution Company;" that ail of said letters are intended to be received by said company, although addressed in the name of the complainant, "Secre- tary," for convenience, and toconceal the fact thatthey were intended for said company, and that they were letters and communications concerning a lottery; that they are the ex- clusive property of said company, and that the complainant is but the secretary so-called, and employe of said company, and bas no ownership or property in said letters; and that said letters, and every one of them, were deposited in the mail bag of the United States in violation of the laws of said govemment, and that their transmission from the varions offices where they were deposited was also in violation of the law. �The answer further sets forth the correspondence with the postmaster general in which he directed defendant to detain letters to "T. J. Commerford, Secretary," and insists such order was justified by law, and was within the scope of his powers as postmaster general. �Few intelligent persons will deny that lottery gambling is a vice which merits the reprobation visited upon it by almost ail the enlightened legislatures of modern times. The moral sense of the community long since pronounced against it, and the eloquent denunciations of Mr. Justice Catron, in the case of The State v. Smith, 2 Yerg. 272, will touch a responsive chord in the heart of every honest man. �The recent report of the postmaster general to the house of representatives sets forth with startling emphasis the ��� �