Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 6.djvu/877

 UNITED STATES V, YATES. "865 �isli the passing of counterfoit coin upon the ground that the eflFect of such an act was to interfere with the government in the discharge of its obligations uuder the constitution, has placed the act of passing counterfeit coin in the same cate- gory with coining, and that, because coining was inf amous at common law, passing counterf ait coin must now be held in- f amous. This mode of reasoning would lead to the conclusion that ail crimes punishable by the United States are inf amous, and must be prosecuted upon the indictment of a grand jiiry ; for, except in a single instance, (Const. art. 1, § 8,) ail the power to create ofifences possessed by the UuSted States is a resulting power derived from the obligations created by the constitution. �The act of passing an unstamped check is plainly enough an interference with the government in the discharge of its obligation to levy and collect taxes, and probably nothing else. But a prosecution of such an act by information has passed under the consideration of the supreme court without objection, (United States v. Isham, 17 Wall. 496,) and many offences of a character to touch the prerogatives of the gov- ernment have been prosecuted by information, both in the circuit and district courts of the United States. U. S. v. Max- well, and cases cited, 3 Dill. 275. Before dismissing the sub- ject it is proper to add that it is not seen that the question under discussion is affected by the circumstance that the stat- ute creating the offence prescribes imprisonment at hard la- bor, and does not declare the offence to be infamous or a fel- ony. The omission to declare the crime a felony furnishes, no doubt, a reason for considering the crime to be a misde- meanor, but the fact that the offence is a misdemeanor is not conclusive of the question whether it be an infamous crime or not ; nor can the crime be held infamous from the fact that it is punishable by hard labor. �By the statutes of many states any crime punishable by hard labor is a felony, but no such test is furnished by the statutes of the United States. Indeed, a provision dedaring that "a felony, under any law of the United States, is a crime punishable with death, or by imprisonment at hard labor," �v.6,no.9— 55 ��� �