Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 7.djvu/728

 716 FBDEBAL SEFOBTEB. �Motion to Qnash. �The indictment alleges that the defendants — �" Did conspire, combine, conf ederate, and agree together, between and among themselves, to plunder certain goods and merchandise, a more par- ticular description of which said goods and merchandise being to the grand jurera aforesaid unknown, then and there belonging to the steam-boat City of Vicksburg, the said steam-boat being then and there wrecked and in distress on the waters of the Mississippi river, within the admiralty and maritime jurisdiction of the United States, while engaged in com- merce and navigation on the said river, to-wit, between Vicksburg, in the State of Mississippi, and St. Louis, in the state of Missouri ; and that, to effect the object of the said conspiracy the said Hercules Sanche then and there furnislied and loaned to the said John "Woods and Elias Boat- right a certain skifE to be used by thera, the said Woods and the said Boatright, in plundering said goods and merchandise from the said steam- boat." �The defendants moved to quBsh the indictment on the grounds stated in the opinion of the court. �W. W. Murray, Dist. Att'y, and John B. Clough, Asst. Dist. Att'y, for the United States. �Metcalf e Walker, Luke E. Wright, and W. D. Wilkerson, for defendants. �Hammond, D. J. This is an indictment under Eev; Sfe. § 54'40, for a conspiracy to commit the offence denounced by Eev, St. § 5358, and the defendants move to quash it on two grounds. The first is that section 6440 does not make it indictable to conspire to commit a trespass against private persons or private property, although such trespass may be a violation of the criminal laws of the United States, but only punishes frauds against the govemment of the United States, and such offeneesasare aimed at it by obstructing its opera- tions or otherwise injuring it in its property or other rights. The section reads as follows : �" If two or more persons conspire, either to commit any offence against the United States, or to defraud the United States in any manner or for any purpose, and one or more of such parties do any act to eflect the object of the conspiracy, all the parties to such conspiracy shall be liable to a penalty," etc. �It is argued that the words "or to defraud the United States in any manner, or for any purpose," found in this section, indieate what is meant by "any offence against the United ��� �