Rufus Wheeler Peckham

“ When proper and legal evidence has been given on the part of the government in a criminal trial, which, if believed, is sufficient in law to make out a crime, and to sustain a conviction of the person on trial, a request to the court to direct the jury to acquit must be refused, and an exception to such refusal raises no question of law, even though the evidence on the part of the defendant is much stronger and more satisfactory than that for the government. ”

“ The papers carried by the messengers were not then dependent upon the event of any lottery. The language as used in the statute looks to the future. The papers must purport to be or represent an existing chance or interest, which is dependent upon the event of a future drawing of the lottery. A paper that contains nothing but figures, which in fact relate to a drawing that has already been completed, one that has passed and gone, cannot properly be said to be a paper, certificate, or instrument as described in the statute. ”

“ If two or more persons conspire either to commit any offense 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 effect the object of the conspiracy, all the parties to such conspiracy shall be liable to a penalty of not less than one thousand dollars and not more than ten thousand dollars, and to imprisonment not more than two years.' Act of 1895. ”