576
FEDEBALREPOBTER.
is not infrequent, as the testimony shows. There was no necessity for him to take this risk. The maneuver was dangerous, as the result proved. Having without necessity adopted a dangerous course, and having failed, he must bear the responsibility.
UNITED STATES
v. RosB. June 7,1882.)
(Circuit Court, S. D. Net/) YtYf'k.
1.8mPPma-OBTAINING EMPLOYMENT FOR SEAMEN.
A person who is not a shipping commissioner is not authorized to charge any fee for shipping seamen. 2. SAHE-PENALTY.
In an action for the penalty for shipping seamen without authority, and demanding a remuneration therefor, Jt is for the, defendant to show himself within the exception stated in the act of congress.
The U. S. Dist. Atty., for plaintiff. Goodrich, Deady Platt, for defendant. WALLAOE, C. J. It was error to require the plaintiff to show any· thing further than that the remuneration demanded by defendant for obtaining employment for the seamen was of a prohibited character. This was shown when it appeared that the defendant was not a shipping commissioner, and therefore was not authorized to charge any fee for shipping seamen. Conceding, for the purpose of this case, that the penalty is not recoverable when the seamen are shipped in vessels of the class mentioned in the act of June 9, 1874, it was for the defendant to show himself within the exemption, and it was not incumbent on the plaintiff to negative the existence of the exculpating facts. Spieres v. Parker, 1 Term, 141; Sheldon v. Clark, 1 Johns. 518; Bennet v. Hurd, 8 Johns. 488; Hart v. Cleis, 8 Johns. 83. Motion for new trial granted.
«
LII GRAND fl.
STATHS.
677
LJIl
GRAND
v.
UNITED
(Circuit Court, E. D. 1'ea;as. July 6, 1882.) CoNSTITUTIONAL LAW-AMENDMENTS INHIBITING STATE LEGISLATION.
Where a. state has been guilty of no violation of the provisions of the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amendments to the constitution of the United private individuals who, States, no power is conferred on congress to acting without any authority fronl the state, and it may be in defiance of law, invade the rights of the citizen which are protected by such amendments. 80, where an act of congress is directed exclusively against the action of· individuals, and not of the states, the law is broader than the amendments by which it is attempted to be justified, and is without constitutional warrant.
Error to the District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. On October 11, 1881, the United States attorney ror the eastern district of Texas filed an information against Israel Le Gralld,the plaintiff in error, William Ridley, and William Laney, in which it was charge.d .that on May 31, 1881, in the county of Camp, and within the eastern district of Texas, the plaintiff in error and the said Ridley and Laney did conspire together and go in disguise upon the premises of one. Dennis Bolton, a. free. male citizen of the United States, and of the state of Texas, who was of the African.race an.d descent, and of the black complexion, for the purpose of depriving him of the equal protection of the laws of the United States and of the state of Texas on account ofbia said race and color, and especially f<>r the purpose of depriving him, the said Bolton, on account of his said race and color, of his right and privilege to give .evidence in a certain criminal prosecution pending before one J. T·. Covington, a justice of the peace of said county of Camp, in the name of the state of Texas, against the said William Ridley and one Robert Carr, and to prevent the said justice of the peace from giving and securing to said Dennis Bolton the equal protection of the laws, to-wit, the right to testify in behalf of the state of Texas in said criminal prosecution, and to prevent the said justice from securing to him, the said Bolton, immunity from personal danger from and at the hands of said Ridley, Le Grand, and Laney; and that said defendants, for the purpose of effecting said conspiracy, having gone upon the premises of said Bolton, did upon said premises assault and shoot and inflict great bodily harm upon the person of the said Bolton. Only one of the defendants named in the information-namely, the plaintiff in error -was arrested by the marshal. He was arraigned,and pleaded not v.12a.no.7-37