a very large number of instances in which certificates of various kinds are specifically required to be sworn to.
There is no provision in any act of congress, so far as I know, or so far as revealed from the elaborate discussion before the court, in which a return by the clerk, such as the law required in the case, touching emolument returns, is specifically made the subject of an indictment for perjury.
Now it may be said that in a broad, general sense the clerk’s statement of his account, and swearing to it, is a declaration that it was true; and so it may be said that the oath was a certificate. But I am by no means clear, though that is one legal view of the subject. I think that such a view of the subject is hardly warranted by the principles of law touching the crime of perjury. They are of great strictness, and very wisely made so.
This case being one of great importance to the defendant, and not without importance to the government, I have concluded upon the whole—my brother, the circuit judge, (Baxter,) agreeing—that, as to the questions arising touching this aspect of the case, we will divide and certify the case up to the supreme court.
