Executive.

PUNISHMENT OF INCENDIARIES.

MESSAGE

PROM THE

PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES,

UPON THE

Subject of providing more effectually for the punishment of certain crimes, &c.

JANUARY 18, 1837.

Referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.

To the House of Representatives of the United States:

I hereby submit to the House of Representatives certain communications from the Secretary of the Treasury, and the Attorney of the United States for the District of Columbia.

They relate to the difficulties which have been interposed under the existing laws, in bringing to conviction and punishment the supposed incendiaries of the Treasury buildings, in the year 1833.

The peculiar circumstances of this case, so long concealed, and of the flagrant frauds by persons disconnected with the Government, which were still longer concealed, and to screen some of which forever was, probably, a principal inducement to the burning of the buildings, lead me earnestly to recommend a revision of the laws on this subject. I do this with a wish not only to render the punishment hereafter more severe for the wanton destruction of the public property, but to repeal entirely the statute of limitallow a party to avail himself of its benefits during the period the comation in all criminal cases, except small misdemeanors, and in no event to suspected of having perpetrated the offence. mission of the crime was kept concealed, or the persons on trial were not It must be manifest to Congress, that the exposed state of the public records here, without fire-proof buildings, imperatively requires the most ample remedies for their protection, and the greatest vigilance and fidelity in all officers, whether executive or judicial, in bringing to condign punish

ment the real offenders.

depends quite as much on accident and good fortune as the laws, for Without these, the public property is in that deplorable situation which

safety.

January 17, 1837.

Blair & Rives, printers.

ANDREW JACKSON.

TREASURY DEPARTMENT,

December 27, 1836.

SIR: It is requested that you would communicate to this department the technical objections, on the ground of the statute of limitations, which may have been raised to prevent conviction in the trial of the supposed offenders for burning the Treasury buildings, in March, 1833.

I will thank you to state, also, the instructions given by the court to the jury on that subject, in order that, through the President of the United States, the attention of Congress may be early invited to any new legislation which the circumstances of the case may appear to render proper, in order to increase the security of the public property in this city; by both increasing the punishment for illegal depredations upon it, and removing such improper obstacles to conviction therefor, when the supposed offenders are detected, as may seem to Congress now to exist.

F. S. KEY,

I am, &c.,

LEVI WOODBURY,
Secretary of the Treasury.

District Attorney U. S., Washington.

WASHINGTON, December 27, 1836.

SIR According to the request in your letter of this day, I enclose a copy of the instructions given by the court to the jury, on the act of 1790, on the trial of Richard H. White.

I understand that the only juror who held out for acquitting the prisoner was satisfied of his guilt, but refused to find him guilty on the ground of this instruction as to the limitations. It is certainly highly necessary that the law should be amended so as to prevent the bar of the statute from operating in cases where the proper officers of Government did not know, and could not, by due diligence, have known, by whom' the offences were committed. One or two cases similar to the present have occurred heretofore in the circuit court, in which this defence has been sustained.

Very respectfully,

Your obedient servant,

F. S. KEY,

U. S. Attorney, D. C.

Circuit Court of the District of Columbia, for the county of Washington; November term, 1836.

The United States, against

On an indictment for burning the Treasury building. On the trial of this cause, the court gave to the jury the following instruction:

Richard H. White, "If the jury believe, from the evidence, that the sudden departure from this District by the traverser, on the evening of the 30th of March, 1833, was for the purpose or with a view to avoid punishment for the offence of burning the Treasury building, or for any other offence, this was a fleeing from justice, and the statute of limitations is no bar, unless the jury should also believe that said prisoner afterwards returned to the county Washington, and that his return was so open and public, and under such

circumstances, that opportunity was afforded, by the use of ordinary diligence and due means, to have arrested him; and that two years and more have elapsed from that period to the time of finding the indictment in this

case."

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA,

County of Washington, to wit:

1. William Brent, clerk of the circuit court of the District of Columbia, for the county of Washington, hereby certify that the within is a true and correct copy of the instruction given by the said court in the case of the United States against Richard H. White, on an indictment for burning the Treasury building.

In testimony whereof, I hereunto subscribe my name, and affix the seal of the said circuit court for the county aforesaid, at the city of Washington, this 28th day of December, 1836. W. BRENT, Clerk.