Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 3.djvu/498

 OmTED STATES V. WILLIAMS. 491 �extended by implication even for the purpose of embracing cases clearly within the mischief intended to be remedied. Terrell v. Atwill, 1 Blatchf. 151.. A strict construction of the statute in question leaves little doubt as to its proper inter- pretation. Desirable as it may be that private letters con- taining indecent expressions should not be admitted to the mails, congress may not have seen fit to exclude them. Until 1865 it permitted the admission to the mails of ail sorts of obscene and indecent matter, and it was not untjl 1873 that it excluded newspapers containing indecent arti- cles; and it may well be doubted whether it bas as yet deemed it ■wise to interfere with private letters which are outwardly unobjectionable. To determine whether the letter in ques- tion is within the scope of the statute, it is necessary to refe' both to the letter itself and to the testimony relating to it. There is nothing indecent upon the envelope. It is addressed to the person to whom it was delivered, sealed, from the mail, and was first opened by him, and there is no evidence that, prior to that time, the letter enclosed, which is in the form of a private letter, was seen by or known to any one but its author. �There seems to be no doubt that such a letter is not among the class of letters which congress bas declared non-mailable, and, if this view of the law is correct, the deposit of it in the mail was not a violation of the statute. If there is a fair doubt whether the aot charged is embraced within the prohi- bition of the statute, the doubt is to be resolved in favor of the defendant. United States v. Morris, li Pet. 464 ; United States V. Wiltberger, 5 Wheat. 76; United States v. Whittier, 18 Alb. L. J. 110. �This conclusion renders it unnecessary for me to review the evidence bearing upon the question by whom the letter referred to was deposited in the mail, or to express an opin- ion thereon. �The case was not giyen to the grand jury. ����