Case Name: UNITED STATES v. WOOD
Court: United States Circuit Court of the District of Columbia
Jurisdiction: United States
Decision Date: 1819-04
Citations: 28 F. Cas. 752
Docket Number: 
Parties: UNITED STATES v. WOOD.
Judges: (THRUSTON, Circuit Judge, absent),
Reporter: Federal Cases
Volume: 28
Pages: 752–752

Head Matter:
Case No. 16,753.
UNITED STATES v. WOOD.
[2 Cranch, C. C. 164.]
Circuit Court, District of Columbia.
April Term, 1819.
Counterfeiting Bank-Note— Peremptory Challenges.
1. A defendant indicted for counterfeiting a bank-note in Alexandria, D. C., is entitled to a peremptory challenge, it being felony without benefit of clergy, by the Virginia acts of December 19, 1792, and December 8, 1794.
2. Falsely altering a promissory note in a material part, with intent to defraud any person, is a forging within the meaning of the statutes.
Indictment [against George Wood] for counterfeiting a note of the Mechanics’ Bank of Alexandria.
Mr. Mason, for defendant,
contended that the statutes of December 19, 1792, and December 8, 1794, do not punish the altering of a note; that altering is not forging, or counterfeiting, or making. The note had been originally a note of the Merchants’ Bank, wMch had failed, and was altered so as to purport to be a note of the Mechanics’ Bank, wMch was in good credit

Opinion:
THE COURT
(THRUSTON, Circuit Judge, absent),
on the prayer of Mr. Jones, for the
United States, instructed the jury that the falsely altering of the note in a material part, with intent to defraud any person, was a forging, witMn the meaning of the statutes.
Verdict- not guilty.