State v. Baggerly

This is an indictment under the 15th Section of the Act of 1854, defining swindling, which reads as follows, (leaving out the part not pertinent to this case,) to-wit: “ If any person shall designedly, by any false pretence and with intent to defraud, obtain the signature of any person to a written instrument, the false making whereof would be punishable as forgery, he shall be punished by confinement to hard labor in the penitentiary,” &c. (Laws 1854-3, p. 61.)

To appreciate the meaning of this Statute, we must consider its object. If a note, purporting to have been given by some person, be…