Commonwealth v. Schaffer
Philadelphia Mayor's Court
The defendant was indicted and convicted for forging the names of several soldiers to powers of attorney, authorizing him to demand and receive their warrants for the donation of lands granted by acts of congress, for services during the revolutionary war.
Read the full summary
The defendant was indicted and convicted for forging the names of several soldiers to powers of attorney, authorizing him to demand and receive their warrants for the donation of lands granted by acts of congress, for services during the revolutionary war. Dallas observed, that as the question of the common-law jurisdiction of the federal courts, in criminal cases, had not been decided, it was his duty, as counsel for the defendant (without declaring his own opinion), to bring it before the court, on the present occasion. He, therefore, moved in arrest of judgment, that the offence, charged…
1Opinion of the Court
Wilcocks, Recorder.
— The offences charged against the defendant in the indictment, are forgeries, committed in forging the names of Allen Fox, Ebenezer Drake, Robert Battersby and Samuel Griswald, to four several *430powers of attorney, to demand and receive from the United States, for each of them, 100 acres of. land ; they having all been soldiers, who enlisted to serve during the late war with Great Britain, and who served through the war ; and in consequence, under various acts of congress, each of them was entitled to a donation of 100 acres of land.
*xxvii.] In support of this motion in…
2Cited by1 opinion
- Crow v. OxfordSupreme Court of the United States · 1886