Page:United States Reports, Volume 209.djvu/63

 209 U. Il. Opinion of tJae Court. taken by demurrer and renewed in other forms. The crime was ommittod upon'land bought by the United States in the city -of Macon, on which it was building a post office and court- house, and over which the State of Georgia had ceded jurisdic- tion; but it is said that murder in a post office of the United States has not been made an offense against the United States, whatever might be the power .of Congress if it saw fit to I)ut it forth. There .can be no doubt of the power of Congre to purchase ]nd within'a State for post offices or courts, by consent of the legislatur of the State, and to exercise exclusive legislation over the same. Pot offices are among the "other needful buildings" for the erection of which, as well as of 'forts, magazines, arsenals, dock-yards," it is assumed that land will be bought, and for which land has been bought by the Govern- ment all over the United States. Const., Art, I, � cl. 17. In- deed, this is not denied. The power to establish post offices is given by Art. I, 5'8, ch 7, in terms. See Kohl v. United States, 91 U.S. 367, 372; Burr v. Merchants' ln,urance Co., 106 Massa- chusette, 356; Tromble v. Humphrey, 23 Michigan, 471, 475; qinks v. Ree, 19 Ohio St. 306. The exclusive legislative power and jurisdiction of the United States is equally clear. Fort Leavenworth R. R. Co. v. Lowe, 114 U.S. 525; Beason v. Uni- ted $tate, 146 U.S. 325. So that the question is only whether the statutes of the United States extend to this case, which was the question intended to be raised. By Rev. Stat. �39, "Every person who commits murder-- First. Within anTfort, arsenal, dock-yard, magazine, or in anf other place or district of country under the exclusive j 'unsdic- tion of the United States; . . . shall suffer death"; and by the act of January 15, 1897, c. 29, � 29 Stt. 487, in such cases '"the jury may qualify their verdict by adding thereto 'without capital punishment,'" whereupon the sentence is. im- prisonment at hard labor for life. The jurisdiction of the Uni- ted' State eourt under these ections is exclui.'ve. Rev. Stat. �1. If the l-%oage of the Constitution is wide enough to

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