The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1906-10-02

VIII serve uSetut purpose Ill ulslisi-
ling the popular impression which
seems to prevail that criminals are
safe from capture il they can only
manage to reach some country which
is not bound by any eXtradition treay
with the one from which they have
fled. Anything that can bring home
to men inclined to offend against the
laws of the land that nowhere in the
world can they find safety from the
avenging hand of justice is calculated
to act as a deterrent OF crime, and
is therefore of advantage to the COM
monwealth. Under the circumstances
the capture of the defaulting president
of the Milwaukee Avenue State Bank.
of Chicago, in Morocco and his sur
render to the United States authorities
made too widely known.
The fact of the matter is that the
principle of eXtradition exists among
all civilized powers. even when for
one reason or another it is not covered
by any hand and fast international
convention. and requests for the sur
render of criminals addressed by one
government to another are granted on
the ground of International courtesy
and comfy. even in the absence OF
treaty stipulations. This practice not
only prevails among the Christian
countries of Europe and of this West
ern Hemisphere. but has likewise been
to all intents and purposes adopted by
Asiatic and North African states, such
as. for instance. Morocco. Thus the
United States has on a number of oc-
casions arrested and SURRENDERED for
eign fugitive criminals here in re-
Spouse to applications from govern
ments with which no eXtradition ar
rangement existed at the time Presi-
dent Lincoln in 1868 caused the arrest
and the surrender to the Spanish au-
thorities of man of the name Of
Arguelles in the absence of any eX-
tradition treay with Spain. Arguelles
who had been the lieutenant governor
of a province in Cuba, was charged
with number of atrOcious crimes
against the common law. among the
minor accusations being one to the
effect that he had sold into slavery
several hundred negroes illegally
brought from Africa. On the authority
of Secretary Seward he was arrested
by United States marshal and turned
over to the Spanish police officers, who
took him back to Havana for trial.
A motion was at once made in the
United States senate calling the presi-
dent to account in the matter, arguing
that, in the absence of a treaty of ex-
tradition and of congressional legisla-
tion touching the surrender of fugitive
criminals to the Spanish government
he had exceeded his powers as chief
magistrate. To this Secretary Seward
replied to the effect that the president
had given up Arguelles under the rules
of international comfy. which pre-
scribe as matter of courtesy the COM
pliance with demands of this kind ad-
dressed by one civilized power to an
other, and he added that Mr. Lincoln
hal likeness acted in the affair in ac-
cordance with the spirit of the con-
stitution of the United States, which
is not in favor of the principle of af-
fording asylum to fugitive criminals
from abroad. but distinctly averse
thereto. A number of years later the
Spanish government returned the COM
pliment by surrendering to the United
States Boss" Tweed, although it was
only some time afterward that an ex-
tration treay between this country and
Spain was concluded
Although treaties of extradition
were negotiated between the United
States and Great Britain in 1894 and
between England and France in 1906,
they remained dead letters, and it
was really the treaty concluded by
Lord Ashburton at Washington in 1S42
which was the first international con-
Vention of this kind to be put into op-
GRAFTON. France negotiated treaty
OF the same kind with the United
States in the following year, and by
degrees all other civilized countries
Followed suit, not only as regards
America, but also among themselves,
the Ashburton Treaty of 1912 between
the United States and England serving
AS basis for the entire system
here in America the actual extra
dition of foreign criminals is essenti-
ally an act Of the executive, the
judiciary merely determining whether
the crime charged is specified by the
.extradition treaty and whether the
evidence is prima facie sufficient to
hold the accused. The demand for ex-
tradition must be addressed in the
first place to the secretary of state 1T
Washington, and the national execu-
tive thereupon, acting by virtue of two
congressional measures bearing date
of 1S48 and 1860, respectively, directs
certain magistrates. judges or COM
missiOners of hte United States courts
to take cognizance of the matter. The
judges or commissioner thus instruct
ed issues warrants of arrest, tries the
accused, and, finding that the alleged
crime is specified by treaty and that
there is prima facie evidence of guilt
on that charge under American laws
commits him to the custody of the ex-
ecutive, who in turn surrenders him 10
the officers of the foreign government
that has demanded his extradition.
There are certain important princi
pies that play preponderant role il
the present system of extradition. Ont
OF these is that no prisoner who ha!
been surrendered to government
which has demanded his extraiitior
may be tried or punished after his sur
render for any other crime than tn,
one for which he has been extradited
The object of this is, of course, to pre-
vent fugitives surrendered for common
law crimes being punished more Sc
verely for political offences. But tn
result of it is that man who has bee,
extradited on charge of forgery coul
not be tried for murder and punishe
for that offence, even though tina
crime were discovered only subsequen
to his extradition. Another equal
important principle is to the effect tina
extradition should be refused for an
offence that Is not regarded as Grim
by the law of the land upon which tn
demand for surrender is made. Thu
there are certain offences in the MOI