The Endorsed Treasury Draft

A government draft, genuinely issued by a Treasury disbursing clerk and payable to a named person, came into the defendant's hands. Prosecutors alleged that he wrote the payee's name on the back of the draft as an endorsement, without the payee's authority, so that he could collect the money from the Treasurer of the United States. He was indicted under a federal forgery law and convicted. On appeal, the defence argued that the indictment charged no crime at all: the draft itself was a genuine government obligation, and a forged signature on its back was not an obligation or security of the United States, which was what the statute named in the indictment actually covered.