The Attorney General took the papers and went over them rapidly. "Well,"
he said, "there is nothing wrong with the application. Everything
is regular except the affidavit, and it is quite clear that it fails to
support this charge of felony."
"I was inclined to that opinion," said the Governor, "and I thought best
to submit the matter to you."
"It is usual," continued the Attorney General, "to grant the application
without question, where the papers are regular and the crime is
charged, and it is not required that the crime be charged with the legal
exactness necessary in an indictment. The Governor is not permitted to
try the question whether the accused is guilty or not guilty. Nor is
he to be controlled by the question whether the offence is or is not a
crime in his own State, the question before him being whether the act
is punishable as a crime in the demanding State. The Governor cannot go
behind the face of the papers nor behind the facts alleged to constitute
a crime, and if these facts, by any reasonable construction, support the
charge of crime, the extradition will usually be granted. But it is a
solemn proceeding, and one not to be trifled with, and not to be invoked
without good cause, nor to be used for the purpose of redressing civil
injuries, or for the purpose of harassing the citizens; and where on
the face of the affidavit it is plainly evident that no crime has been
committed, and that by no possible construction of the facts stated
could the matter be punishable as a crime, then it is the duty of the
Governor to refuse the extradition.
"In this case the authorities in the demanding State have filed an
affidavit setting forth at length the facts alleged to constitute a
felony. This paper shows substantially that a general partnership was
formed by William Harris and Thomas Woodford, and that pursuant to such
business relations certain partnership property came into the possession
of Harris; this property he converted to his own use. It is clear that
this act constituted no crime under the statutes of West Virginia or
the common law there obtaining. The property was general partnership
property; the money taken was a general partnership fund, subject to the
check of either partner. The partner Harris was properly in possession
of the cattle as a part owner. He was also lawfully entitled to the
possession of the partnership fund if he saw fit to draw it out and use
it. If it be presumed that his story of the robbery is false, and that
he deliberately planned to secure possession of the property and money,
and did so secure possession of it, and converted it to his own use, yet
he has committed no crime. He has simply taken advantage of the trust
reposed in him by his partner Woodford, and has done none of those acts
essential to a felony. The application must be refused."
"That was my opinion," said the Governor, "but such a great wrong had
been done that I hesitated to refuse the extradition."
"Yes," answered the Attorney General, "all the wrong of a serious
felony has been done, but no crime has been committed. The machinery
of criminal jurisprudence cannot be used for the purpose of redressing
civil wrong, the distinction being that, by a fiction of law, crimes are
wrongs against the State, and in order to be a crime the offence must be
one of those wrongs described by the law as being against the peace and
dignity of the State. If, on the other hand, the act be simply a wrong
to the citizen and not of the class described as being offences against
the State, it is no crime, no matter how injurious it may be or how
wrongful to the individual. The entire transaction was a civil matter
resulting in injury to the citizen, Woodford, but it is no crime, and is
not the proper subject of an extradition."
The Governor turned around in his chair. "James," he said to his private
secretary, "return the application for the extradition of William
Harris, and say that upon the face of the papers it is plainly evident
that no crime has been committed."
The blow which Fate had sought to deliver with such malicious cunning
against the confidential clerk of Beaumont, Milton, & Company had been
turned aside, and had fallen with all its crushing weight upon the
shoulders of another man, five hundred miles to westward, within the
jurisdiction of a distant commonwealth.