Daily American telegraph. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1851-1852, 1852-02-12
Reported for the Daily American Telegraph

Case OF Captain Henry A. Nagioe.
| AS Captain Naglee has been the subject OF much
comment on the part of certain letter-writers,
and, as it now appears, Of no little .misrepre-
sentaton, to user no harsher term, we have thought
it right to give the result of the first case against
him, which was terminated to-dayin the Criminal
Court of'this District. III
The indictment was for obtaining money from
the Treasury on false pretences, as the agent of
Captain Robert Porter, of the I'd Pennsylvania
Volunteers, in the Mexican war, for advances
made in raising his company, before mustered into
| service. Defendant was arrested, and gave bail
Trial came on last Monday.
| Counsel for the United States, P. r. Fendall,
| District Attorney, and William h. Woodward,
esq. Counsel for defendant General McCalla,
| Judge N c. Read, of Ohio, and b. b. French,
| esq.
Jury sworn without objection. Case opened
| by Mr.. Fendall for the United States, and Gen.
McCalla for defendant.
There were sworn, on the part of the United
States Captains Porter, Heron, and Quail, of the
I'd regiment of Volunteers, and Mr.. Clayton, Sec
ond Auditor, and several Of his clerks, all Of
whom were fully and repeatedly examined and
| ross-examined. Every opportunity was given
to test the merits of the case the side of the
| prosecution. Several witnesses were examined
| On the part of Captain Naglee, particularly the
| Hon. Col Florence, Representative in Congress
rom Philadelphia, who had known him in that
;ity for several years past; and also Mr.. Star
Duck the former clerk of the Second Auditors
| ,ffce, who settled the claim of Captain Porter,
the proceeds of which had been drawn by Captain
Naglee under power of attorney.
After closing the testimony, instructions were
moved and ably argued by Judge Read to the
Court on last evening" which were responded to
by MIR. Fendall this morning. After closing the
argument, the Court instructed the jury on the
various points Of law involved.
We cannot refrain from speaking in high terms
of the official conduct of the Judge on this occa-
sion He was evidently determined to admins
ter justice, without fear or favor; and we think
he succeeded in achieving his object. His de-
cisions on the law questions already named have
been solicited from him by the counsel for Capt.
Nagee, and other members of the bar present,
to be published for the information of the COM
munity; and we were pleased to hear that he will
comply with the request as soon as he can do so
conveniently.
The law of the case being decided, the parties
submitted the case to the jury without argument;
when the jury, after retiring not quite tVo min
utes by the court clock, returned into court with
u verdict of g Nor GUILTY."
Much to the honor Of the jury, they, with
evident satisfaction, signed the following state
ment, designed to protect Captain Naglee from
any insinuaton that he escaped by the protec-
ton of the statute of limitations, and not on the
merits of his case:
We, of the jury who tried Captain Henry A.
Naglee on an Indictment for obtaining money from
the Treasury on false pretences, as attorney OF
Captain Porter, state that we did not acquit him,
on account of the statute of limitations, but be-
cause there was no proof that he was guilty OF
the offence FRANCIS b. LORD,
.TERANCE DRURY,
j. W. DELLAwAY,
B. +. MoRsELL
HARRISON TAYLOR,
CHAs. Nj. WRIGHT,
HENRY d. GuNNELL,
HUGH DoUGHERTY,
SAMUEL PERKINS,
DAVID KooNEs,
DANIEL KAUFMAN,
GEO. 7. NcGLUE.
WASHINGTON CRY, February y 1852.