Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 2.djvu/70

 tntlTBD 8TATBB V. WIIiIiUUB. C$ �assault is a violation of any law of the United States, the motion must be denied. Kev. St, § 73Q ; U. S. v. Carr, supra, 304. �The only provision in the statutes of the United States for punishing an attempt to commit murder or manslaughter on land, is found in section 5342, $upra, but for some reason this is confined to cases where the means used do not con- Btitute "the offence of assault veith a dangerous weapon." �The punishment of an assault with a dangerous weapon, or with intent to perpetrate a felony, committed on the waters within the jurisdiciion of the United States, and out of th» jurisdiction of any particular state, was provided for in sec- tion 4 of the act of March 3, 1826 (4 St. 115; Eev. St. § 5346) but not the attempt to commit murder or manslaughter» anless it was coincident with 8uch assault. But an attempt to commit murder or manslaughter on land, or an assault there, by whatever means committed, was not punishable by any law of the United States until 1857, when, as has been stated by section 2, of the act of March 3 of that year, it was declared that an attempt to commit murder or man- slaughter, whether on land or water, should be punished as therein prescribed, provided, such attempt was not made by means of the assault mentioned in the act of 1825, supra, thuB limiting the operation of the statute to attempts made by drowning, poisoning, or the like. And probably this was 80 provided iipon the erroneous impression that the act of 1825 was applicable to assaults committed on land as well as water. �But, however this may be, as a resuit of this patchwork legislation, it appears that there is no punishment provided for an assault with a dangerous weapon, committed within the exclusive jurisdiction of the United States, if committed on land, even if such assault should involve, as it may, and did in this case, an attempt to commit murder. �In the drawing of the indictment an effort has been made to bring this nase within the terms of section 5342, Eev. St., by an averment therein that the attempt to murder was made ����