“ When objection to the jurisdiction of the court to try the offence charged in an indictment is raised, it must then and there be passed upon, because it involves the authority of the court to proceed at all, and this principle applies as well to a motion to quash as to any other form of objection. A motion to quash is the proper mode of raising a question of jurisdiction, because if the objection be well taken, all proceedings in the case are coram non judice, and the objection should, therefore, be made at the earliest possible moment. ”

“ Avery and others were indicted under the act of May 31st, 1870, [1] known as the Enforcement Act, for conspiracy, with intent to violate the first section of that act, by unlawfully hindering, preventing, and restraining divers males, citizens of the United States, of African descent, from exercising the right of voting ”