Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 4.djvu/218

 '204 «SDEBAIi EEPOETEE. �mçïift in the penitentiaïy, felonies, and so defines the term. C. &N. 316; Acts 1873, p. 87. We have no such legisla- tion by congresa. Section 5391 of the Eevised Statutes is lim- itçd to ; offences committed in places ceded to the United States, and adopta the state law as to such offences if not otherwise provided for;, and of course, in such cases, if the offence is a felony by state law, it becomes a felony by this section. �There is no uniformity in the legislation of congress as to the punishment of criminal offences, and we often find statu- tory misdemeanors punished more severely than statutory felonies ; and while some of the statutes prescribe hard labor as a part of the punishment, when necessarily the confine- ment must be in some prison where it can be so enforced, on the Other hand the simple imprisonment prescribed may become idonfînement with hard labor byseleetinga prison whereitisa part (îf the discipline ; so that we often find prisoners convioted of the same offence, and sentenced to the same punishment^ un-
 * . dergoingin fact different punishments. Ex pa/rte Karstendick,

. 93 U- S. 396. Jn this case it is held that it is not the inten- tion of-our statutes to limit confinement in the penitentiary .to thôse offences where hàrd labor is imposed. Eev. St. § 5539. ' We find it, theref ore, impractioable to applyany such testas that prescribed by the state legislation above men- tioned, as the legislation of congress now stands, to the deter- mination of the meaning of the word "felony" as used in section 819 now under consideration. �But, aside from this, nothing is better settled than thatwe cannot look to the state làws, in the criminal jurisprudence of the United states, for the oharacteristic elements whichgo to make up an offence, and enter into it as a part of its legal statm; nor to the common law; nor even to the character of the punishment. The federal courts take no cognizance of state statutes in criminal proceedings, and deduce no crimi- nal jurisdiction from the common law, which has no force, directly or indirectly, to make an act an offence not made so by congress; though in ail matters respecting the accusa- tion and trial of offenders, not otherwise provided for, we are ����