Public Acts of Congress. several sums herein specifically appropriated, shall be paid out of any moneys in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated. Approved, April 25, 1808. An act authorizing the Secretary of the Treasury to pay to the Comptroller of the Treasury, in trust, the amount of certain bills drawn by John Armstrong, Minister from the United States to the Court of France, on the Treasury of the United States. Be it enacted, &c., That the Secretary of the Treasury be, and he is hereby, authorized and directed to pay, into the hands of the Comptroller of the Treasury of the United States, the amount, in cash, of the bills drawn by John Armstrong, Minister from the United States to the Court of France, on the Treasurer of the United States, in favor of Nathan Freres, Denton, and Hall, pursuant to a liquidation made by the Government of France, under the convention concluded between the United States and the French Government, on the thirtieth day of April, in the year one thousand eight hundred and three; and also, the amount of the bills drawn by the aforesaid Minister, on the said Treasurer of the United States, in favor of Joseph Sands, pursuant to a liquidation made under the convention aforesaid; which sums, so paid to the Comptroller, shall be held, by him in trust, to pay and satisfy such persons, and in such proportions, as shall be adjudged or decreed by the courts hereafter specified; and the said sums shall be by the Comptroller deposited in the office of discount and deposite, in the City of Washington, for safe keeping until such judgments or decrees shall take place. SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That all suits or proceedings, at law or in equity, to establish claims against, or recover the whole, or any part, of the sum so deposited, on account of the bills drawn in favor of Nathan Freres, Denton, and Hall, shall be commenced on or before the first day of November next, in the circuit court of the fourth circuit, holden in the district of Maryland; and all suits or proceedings, at law or in equity, to establish claims against, or to recover, the whole or any part of the sum so deposited, on account of the bills drawn in favor of Joseph Sands, shall be commenced on or before the day aforesaid, in the circuit court of the second circuit, holden in the district of New York, or in the circuit court of the District of Columbia, to be held for Washington county, in said district; and any, or either, party aggrieved by the judgment or decree of either of the said courts, may remove the same to the Supreme Court of the United States, in the same manner, and on the same terms and conditions, as appeals and writs of error are now prosecuted from the said courts. SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That whenever a final judgment or decree shall be entered up by either of the said courts, in favor of any person or persons who may have established a right or claim to the whole, or any part, of the said sums, so paid to the Comptroller, and deposited in virtue of this law, the said Comptroller shall direct the cashier of the said office of discount and deposite to pay the amount recovered to the party or persons entitled under such judgment or decree, so rendered by the said courts. Approved, April 25, 1808. An Act to make good a deficit in the appropriation of eighteen hundred and seven, for completing the public buildings; and for other purposes. Be it enacted, &c., That, in addition to the appropriations already made, the following sums of money be, and the same are hereby, appropriated, to be applied, under the direction of the President of the United States, to the purposes hereinafter mentioned, that is to say: For making good the deficit of eighteen hundred and seven, including the debt due from the public offices, fifty-one thousand five hundred dollars. For completing the wall of the President's square, planting the ground so as to close this part of the expenditure, building a solid flight of steps to the principal door, and minor expenses, fourteen thousand dollars. For carrying up, in solid work, the interior of the north wing, comprising the Senate Chamber, twenty five thousand dollars. For executing the work deficient in the interior of the south wing, and for painting, eleven thousand five hundred dollars. SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That the several sums of money hereby appropriated, shall be paid out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated. Approved, April 25, 1808. An act in addition to the act, entitled "An act laying an embargo on all ships and vessels in the ports and harbors of the United States," and the several acts supplementary thereto, and for other purposes. Be it enacted, &c., That, during the continuance of the act laying an embargo on all ships and vessels in the ports and harbors of the United States, no vessel of any description whatever, and wherever bound, whose employment is confined to the navigation of bays, sounds, rivers, and lakes, within the jurisdiction of the United States, (packets, ferry-boats, and vessels exempted from the obligation of giving any bond whatever, only excepted,) shall be allowed to depart from any district of the United States, without having previously obtained a clearance, nor until the master or commander shall have delivered to the collector or surveyor of the port of departure a manifest of the whole cargo on board, including articles of domestic growth or manufacture, as well as foreign merchandise. And it shall also be the duty of the owners, agents, or masters of every such vessel, to produce, within two months, thereafter. to the collector of the district from which the vessel departed, a certificate of the landing of the whole of such cargo, in a port of the United States, within the bay, sound, rivers, or lakes, to which the navigation of such vessel is confined, signed Public Acts of Congress. by the collector or surveyor of the port where the cargo shall have been landed. SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That during the continuance of the act laying an embargo on all ships and vessels in the ports and harbors of the United States, and of the several acts supplementary thereto, no ship or vessel of any description whatever, other than those described in the next preceding section, and wherever bound, shall receive a clearance, unless the lading shall be made hereafter under the inspection of the proper revenue officers, subject to the same restrictions, regulations, penalties, and forfeitures, as are provided by law for the inspection of goods, wares, and merchandise, imported into the United States, upon which duties are imposed, any law to the contrary notwithstanding: Provided, that nothing herein contained shall be construed to affect vessels laden, in whole or in part, on the receipt of this act by the respective collectors. SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That if any vessel, described in the first section, shall depart from any district of the United States without a clearance, or before the manifest of the cargo shall have been delivered to the collector or surveyor, in the manner therein prohibited, or if a certificate of the landing of the cargo shall not be produced within the time and in the manner therein provided, such vessels and cargo shall be forfeited, and the owner or owners, consignee, agent, factors, freighters, master, or skipper of such vessel, shall respectively forfeit and pay a sum not exceeding five thousand dollars, nor less than one thousand dollars: Provided always, that nothing herein contained shall be construed to bar or prevent the recovery of the penalty on the bond given for such vessel. SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That during the continuance of the act laying an embargo on all ships and vessels in the ports and harbors of the United States, and of the several acts supplementary thereto, it shall be the duty of the master or person having charge or command of any vessel, flat, or boat, intended to enter that part of the river Mississippi which lies between the southern boundary of the Mississippi Territory and the river Iberville, if going down the said river, to stop at Fort Adams, and if going up the river to stop at Iberville, and at each place, as the case may be, to deliver to an inspector of the revenue, to be stationed there for that purpose, a manifest of the whole cargo on board; and also to produce to the same officer, within two months thereafter, if going down the river, and within six months thereafter, if going up the river, a certificate of the landing of the same in some part of the district of Mississippi, and within the jurisdiction of the United States, which certificate shall be signed by the collector or one of the surveyors of the district of Mississippi; or, if the cargo shall be landed more than thirty miles from the place of residence of any such officer, by a State or Territorial judge, having jurisdiction at the place of such landing. Mississippi, as prescribed in the next preceding section, without stopping and delivering a manifest in the manner therein provided, or if a certificate of the landing of the cargo shall not be produced within the time, and in the manner therein provided, such vessel, flat, or boat, and cargo, shall be forfeited, and the owner or owners, consignee, agent, factors, freighters, master, or skipper of such vessel, flat, or boat, shall respectively forfeit and pay a sum not exceeding five thousand dollars, nor less than one thousand dollars. SEC. 6. And be it further enacted, That no ship or vessel having any cargo whatever on board, shall, during the continuance of the act laying an embargo on all ships and vessels, in the ports and harbors of the United States, be allowed to depart from any port of the United States, for any other port or district of the United States, adjacent to the territories, colonies, or provinces of a foreign nation; nor shall any clearance be furnished to any ship or vessel, bound as aforesaid, without special permission of the President of the United States. And if any ship or vessel shall, contrary to the provisions of this act, proceed to any port or district adjacent to the territories, colonies, or provinces of a foreign nation, such ship or vessel, with her cargo, shall be wholly forfeited; and if the same shall not be seized, the owner, agents, factors, and freighters of such ship or vessel shall, for every such offence, forfeit and pay double the value of such ship and cargo; and the master and commander of such ship or vessel, as well as all other persons, who shall knowingly be concerned in such prohibited voyage, shall each respectively forfeit and pay not exceeding three thousand dollars, nor less than five hundred dollars, for such offence, whether the vessel be seized or not. SEC. 7. And be it further enacted, That the commanders of the public armed vessels and gunboats of the United States shall, as well as the commanders or masters of the revenue cutters, and revenue boats, be authorized, and they are hereby authorized, to stop and examine any vessel, flat, or boat, belonging to any citizen of the United States, either on the high seas, or within the jurisdiction of the United States, or any foreign vessel within the jurisdiction of the United States, which there may be reason to suspect to be engaged in any traffic or commerce, or in the transportation of merchandise, of either domestic or foreign growth or manufacture, contrary to the provisions of this act, or of the act laying an embargo on all ships and vessels in the ports and harbors of the United States, or of any of the acts supplementary thereto; and if, upon examination, it shall appear that such vessel, flat, or boat, is thus engaged, it shall be the duty of the commander to seize every such vessel, flat, or boat, and to send the same to the nearest port of the United States for trial. SEC. 8. And be it further enacted, That the Comptroller of the Treasury be, and he hereby is. authorized to remit the duties accruing on the importation of goods of domestic produce, or SEC. 5. And be it further enacted, That, if any which, being of foreign produce, had been exportvessel, flat, or boat, shall enter that part of the rivered without receiving a drawback, which may Public Acts of Congress. have been, or may be re-imported in vessels own- SEC. 14. And be it further enacted, That all ed by citizens of the United States, and which | having sailed subsequent to the first day of October last, and prior to the twenty-second day of December last, may be or have been stopped on the high seas by foreign armed vessels, and by reason thereof have returned, or may hereafter return into the United States. And the said Comptroller is likewise authorized to direct the exportation bonds given for foreign merchandise, exported with privilege of drawback, in such vessel and re-imported in the same, in the manner aforesaid, to be cancelled, the duties on such re-importation being previously paid, and on such other conditions and restrictions as may be necessary for the security of the revenue. SEC. 9. And be it further enacted, That, during the continuance of the act laying an embargo on all ships and vessels in the ports and harbors of the United States, no foreign ship or vessel shall go from one port in the United States to another, and should any foreign ship or vessel, contrary to this section, go from one port of the United States to another, the vessel with her cargo shall be wholly forfeited, the owner, or owners, agent, factors, freighters, and master of such ship or vessel, shall forfeit and pay a sum not exceeding three thousand dollars, nor less than one thousand dollars. SEC. 10. And be it further enacted, That no vessel, flat, or boat, comprehended in this act shall be obliged to pay more than twenty cents for each clearance. SBC. 11. And be it further enacted, That the collectors of the customs be, and they are hereby, respectively authorized to detain any vessel ostensibly bound with a cargo to some other port of the United States, whenever in their opinions the intention is to violate or evade any of the provisions of the acts laying an embargo, until the decision of the President of the United States be had thereupon. SEC. 12. And be it further enacted, That if any unusual deposites of provisions, lumber, or other articles of domestic growth or manufacture, shall have been, or shall be made in any of the ports of the United States, adjacent to the territories, colonies, or provinces of a foreign nation, the collector of the district shall be, and he hereby is, authorized to take the same in his custody, and not to permit such articles to be removed until bond with sufficient sureties shall have been given for the landing or delivery of the same in some port or place of the United States. penalties and forfeitures, incurred by force of this act, may be mitigated and remitted in the manner prescribed by the act, entitled "An act to provide for mitigating and remitting the forfeitures, penalties, and disabilities, accruing in certain cases therein mentioned ;" and all penalties and forfeitures which may be recovered in pursuance of this act, in consequence of any seizure made by the commander of any public armed vessel of the United States, shall be distributed according to the rules prescribed by the act, entitled "An act for the government of the Navy of the United States," and all other penalties and forfeitures, arising under this act, shall be distributed in the manner prescribed by the act, entitled "An act to regulate the collection of duties on imports and tonnage." SEC. 15. And be it further enacted, That nothing in the act laying an embargo on all ships and vessels in the ports and harbors of the United States, or in the several acts supplementary thereto, or in the act to prohibit the importation of certain goods, wares, and merchandise, shall be construed to prevent the exportation by land. or inland navigation, from the territories of the United States into those of Great Britain, of furs and peltries, the property of subjects of Great Britain, and by them purchased from the Indians, or to prevent the importation by land, or inland navigation, from the territories of Great Britain into those of the United States, of merchandise the property of British subjects, and by them imported solely for the use of the Indians aforesaid. Approved, April 25, 1808. An Act supplemental to "An act regulating the grants of land in the Territory of Michigan." Be it enacted, &c., That every person claiming lands, within that part of the Michigan Territory to which the Indian title hath been extinguished, by virtue of any legal grant made by the French Government prior to the Treaty of Paris, of the tenth of February, one thousand seven hundred and sixty-three; or of any legal grant made by the British Government subsequent to the said treaty, and prior to the Treaty of Peace between the United States and Great Britain, of the third of September, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-three, or of the second section of the act to which this act is a supplement, shall be allowed until the first day of January next, to deliver to the register of the land office for the district of SEC. 13. And be it further enacted, That any Detroit, a notice in writing, stating the nature and ship or vessel, owned by a citizen or citizens of extent of his claims, together with a plat or plats the United States, loaded, or in part loaded, with of the tract or tracts claimed; and if such person the produce of the United States, before the act shall fail to deliver such notice in writing, together laying an embargo was passed, and by said act with a plat of the tract claimed, all his right, so detained in any port of the United States, may far as it may be derived from any act of Congress, be permitted to proceed to any other port of the shall become void; and the Commissioners apUnited States, and there to remain with such car-pointed for the purpose of ascertaining and decigo on board, subject to such other restrictions and bonds as are prescribed in the act laying an embargo, and the several supplementary acts thereto. ding the rights of persons claiming lands in the said district of Detroit, shall have the same powers and perform the duties in relation to the claims, notices of which shall be thus filed, as are provided Public Acts of Congress by the act to which this act is a supplement, in relation to the claims therein described. SEC. 2. And be it further enacted. That every person whose claim has been or shall be confirmed, by the Commissioners aforesaid, to a tract of land bordering on the river Detroit, and not exceeding in depth forty arpens, French measure, shall be entitled to a preference in becoming the purchaser of any vacant tract of land adjacent to, and back of his own tract, not exceeding forty arpens, French measure, in depth, nor in quantity of land that which is contained in his own tract, at the same price, and on the same terms and conditions as are provided by law for the other public lands in the said district. And the surveyor general shall be, and he is hereby, authorized, as soon as may be, to cause to be surveyed the tracts claimed by virtue of this section, and in all cases where, by reason of bends in the said river, and of adjacent prior, or pre-emption claims, each claimant cannot obtain a tract equal in quantity to the adjacent tract already owned by him, to divide the vacant land, applicable to that object, between the several claimants, in such manner as to him will appear most equitable. And every person entitled to the benefit of this section, shall, on or before the first day of January next, deliver to the register of the land office for the district of Detroit, a notice in writing, stating the situation and extent of the tract of laud he wishes to purchase, and deposite at the same time one-twentieth part of the purchase money; and shall also, within three months after the return of the survey to the office of the said register, produce to him a receipt from the receiver of public money for the said district for one-fourth part of the purchase money. And if any such person shall fail to deliver such notice, and make such deposite and payment, at the times above mentioned, his right of pre-emption shall cease, and become void. SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That every person who, being the head of a family, did, prior to the twenty-sixth of March, one thousand eight hundred and four, and doth, at the time of the passage of this act, inhabit and cultivate a tract of land in the Territory of Michigan, not claimed by virtue of a legal French or British grant, or by the second section of the act to which this act is a supplement, shall be entitled to a preference, in becoming the purchaser from the United States of such tract of land, not exceeding one section, at the price at which the other public lands in the said Territory are directed to be sold; and payment may be made therefor in the same manner, and under the same conditions, as are provided by law for such other public lands. And every person entitled to the benefit of this section, shall, on or before the first day of January next, deliver to the register of the land office, for the district aforesaid, a notice in writing, of the situation and extent of the tract of land he wishes to purchase. The Commissioners aforesaid are hereby authorized to examine and decide the claims of every person claiming the benefit of this section, and whenever it shall appear to them that the claimant is entitled to a right of pre-emption they shall give a certificate thereof, directed to the register of the land office, which certificate, together with a receipt from the receiver of public money, of at least one-fourth part of the purchase money, shall, on or before the first day of January next, be produced by the claimant to the register of the land oflice for the said district. And if any person shall fail to deliver such notice in writing, or produce such certificate and receipt within the times above-mentioned, his right of pre-emption shall cease and become void. SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That so much of the second section of the act to which this act is a supplement, as provides that not more than one tract or parcel of land shall be granted to any one person, shall be, and the same is hereby, repealed. SEC. 5. And be it further enacted, That the lands to which the Indian title has been extinguished, by the treaty made at Detroit, on the seventeenth of November, one thousand eight hundred and seven, shall be attached to and made a part of the district of Detroit, and be offered for sale at that place, under the same exceptions and regulations, at the same price, and on the same terms, as other lands lying in that district. Approved, April 25, 1808. Resolution to authorize the disposition of certain charts of the coast of North Carolina. Resolved, by the Senate and House of Repre sentatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Secretary of the Treasury be, and he is hereby, directed to cause to be sold as many of the charts of the coast of North Carolina, published in conformity to the resolution which passed the second of March, one thousand eight hundred and seven, as shall remain on band. after reserving the number requisite for the use of the Government of the United States. Approved, March 4, 1808. |