Opinion of the Court. 225 U.S. The please, to give locality to an union of minds between men who were never at the same place at the same time? statute cuts through such puzzles and makes the act of a conspirator, which necessarily has a definite place without the aid of presumption or fiction, the legal inception of guilt inculpating all and subjecting all to punishment. In re Palliser was also applied in Burton v. United States, 202 U. S. 344, in which it was held that there was jurisdiction in Missouri of a criminal charge against Burton for agreeing in that State to receive prohibited compensation for certain services to be rendered by him while he was a United States Senator, the offer being carried to Missouri by an agent and accepted there, Burton not being personally present in the State. The court said, through Mr. Justice HARLAN (p. 387): "The constitutional requirement is that the crime shall be tried in the State and District where committed, not necessarily in the State or district where the party committing it happened to be at the time. This distinction was brought out and recognized in Palliser's case, 136 U. S. 257, 265." And, after stating that the agreement between the parties was completed at the time of the acceptance of Burton's offer at St. Louis, he added: "Then the offense was committed, and it was committed at St. Louis, notwithstanding the defendant was not personally present in Missouri when his offer was accepted and the agreement was completed." And the contention was rejected "that an individual could not, either in law or within the meaning of the Constitution, commit a crime within a State in which he is not physically present at the time the crime is committed." This court has recognized, therefore, that there may be a constructive presence in a State, distinct from a personal presence, by which a crime may be consummated. And if it may be consummated it may be punished by an exercise of jurisdiction; that is, a person committing it may be brought to trial and condemnation. And this must be so if we would fit the laws and their administration to the acts of men and not be led away by mere "bookish theorick." We have held that a conspiracy is not necessarily the conception and purpose of the moment, but may be continuing. If so in time, it may be in place-carrying to the whole area of its operations the guilt of its conception and that which follows guilt, trial and punishment. As we have pointed out, the statute states what in addition to the agreement is necessary to complete the measure of the offense. The guilty purpose must be put into a guilty act. We realize the strength of the apprehension that to extend the jurisdiction of conspiracy by overt acts may give to the Government a power which may be abused, and we do not wish to put out of view such possibility. But there are counter considerations. It is not an oppression in the law to accept the place where an unlawful purpose is attempted to be executed as the place of its punishment, and rather conspirators be taken from their homes than the victims and witnesses of the conspiracy be taken from theirs. We must not, in too great a solicitude for the criminal, give him a kind of immunity from punishment because of the difficulty in convicting him-indeed, of even detecting him. And this may result, if the rule contended for be adopted. Let him meet with his fellows in secret and he will try to do so; let the place be concealed, as it can be, and he and they may execute their crime in every State in the Union and defeat punishment in all. And the suppositions are not fanciful, as illustrated by a case submitted coincidently with this. Brown v. Elliott, post, p. 392. The possibility of such a result repels the contention and demonstrates that to yield to it would carry technical rules and rigidity of reasoning too far for the practical administration of criminal justice. We see no reason why a constructive presence should not be assigned Opinion of the Court. 225 U.S. to conspirators as well as to other criminals; and we certainly cannot assent to the proposition that it is not competent for Congress to define what shall constitute the offense of conspiracy or when it shall be considered complete and do with it as with other crimes which are commenced in one place and continued in another. Nor do we think that the size of our country has become too great for the effective administration of criminal justice. We held in Armour Packing Company v. United States, 209 U. S. 56, that the transportation of merchandise for less than the published rate is, under the Elkins Act, a continuing offense, and that the Sixth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States, providing that an accused shall be tried in the State and District where the crime is committed, did not preclude a trial of the offense in any of the districts through which the transportation was conducted. See also Haas v. Henkel, 216 U. S. 462, 473. Cases are cited which oppose the views we have expressed and others to support them. In Robinson v. United States, in the Circuit Court of Appeals of the Eighth Circuit, the question was directly presented. 172 Fed. Rep. 105. The conspiracy passed on was alleged in the indictment to have been entered into in Cincinnati and Chicago, the overt acts set out were proved to have been committed in Minneapolis and the evidence showed that it was the intention of the conspirators to carry out their conspiracy at Minneapolis. The trial court was moved to direct a verdict for the defendants if the jury found that the agreement was entered into in Cincinnati and Chicago and was complete when the parties went into the district of Minnesota. The instruction was refused and, the defendants having been convicted, the refusal was assigned as error, in the Circuit Court of Appeals, based on the provi sions of the Constitution of the United States giving those accused of crime the right to trial by jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed. The court, passing on the ruling of the trial court, said by District Judge Carland (p. 108) and we quote its language to avail ourselves not only of the citation of cases, but of the comments upon them: "At common law the venue in conspiracy could be laid in any county in which it could be proven that an overt act was done by any one of the conspirators in furtherance of their common design. 1 Archbold's Criminal Practice and Pleading (8th ed.) p. 226. Where a conspiracy was formed at sea, and an overt act done in Middlesex county, it was held that the venue was properly laid in that county. The King v. Bresac and Scott, 4 East, 164. In the case of King v. Bowes and Others, referred to in the above case, the conspirators were tried in Middlesex, though there was no proof of an actual conspiracy in that county, and the acts and doings of some of them were wholly in other counties. In People v. Mather, 4 Wend. (N. Y.) 261, 21 Am. Dec. 122, Marcy, J., in delivering the opinion of the court, said: 'I admit that it is the illegal agreement that constitutes the crime. When that is concluded the crime is perfect, and the conspirators may be convicted if the crime can be proved. No overt act need be shown or ever performed to authorize a conviction. If conspirators enter into the illegal agreement in one county, the crime is perpetrated there, and they may be immediately prosecuted; but the proceedings against them must be in that county. If they go into another county to execute their plans of mischief, and there commit an overt act, they may be punished in the latter county without any evidence of an express renewal of their agreement. The law considers that wherever they act there they renew, or perhaps, to speak more properly they continue, their agreement, and this agreement is renewed or continued as to all whenever any one of them does an act in furtherance of their common design. In this respect, conspiracy resembles treason in England, when directed against the life of the King. The crime consists in imagining the death of the King. In contemplation of law, the crime is committed wherever the traitor is and furnishes proof of his wicked intention by the exhibition of any overt act.' "To the same effect are Commonwealth v. Gillespie, 7 Serg. & R. (Pa.) 469, 10 Am. Dec. 475; Noyes v. State, 41 N. J. Law, 418; Commonwealth v. Corlies, 3 Brewst. (Pa.) 575. "If this was the law of venue in conspiracies at common law, where proof of an overt act was not necessary to show a completed offense, the same rule can be urged with much greater force under section 5440, Rev. St. U. S., as the offense described therein for all practical purposes is not complete until an overt act is committed. It seems clear, then, that whether we place reliance on the common law or on section 731, Rev. St., the venue of the offense was correctly laid in the district of Minnesota, and the evidence sustained the allegation of the indictment." To the cases cited by the learned court these may be added: State v. Nugent, 77 N. J. L. 84, 86; Bloomer v. State, 48 Maryland, 521; People v. Arnold, 46 Michigan, 268, 275; American Insurance Co. v. State, 75 Mississippi, 24; State v. Hamilton, 13 Nevada, 386; International Harvester Co. v. Commonwealth, 137 Kentucky, 668, 674; Pearce v. Territory, 11 Oklahoma, 438; Ex parte Rogers, 10 Tex. App. 655, and Raleigh v. Cook, 60 Texas, 438. There are cases in the lower Federal courts which may be cited for and against the demarcation of the conspiracy and the overt act. To compare and comment on them would extend this opinion to too great length. We may say the same of the special citation of cases by defendants. But it is said that the crime charged is not the crime proved, even if it be assumed that the overt act is part of the crime of conspiracy under § 5440. In support of |