Miscellaneous.

To Washington Irving, late secretary of legation at London, for an arrearage on account of his services as chargé d'affaires, and for one quarter's salary, the allowance for his return to the United States, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-three dollars and eighty-five cents.

To George W. Slacum, consul of the United States at Buenos Ayres, on account of diplomatic services at that place, from the death of John M. Forbes, till the arrival of Francis Baylies, chargé d'affaires of the United States, from the fourteenth June, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-one, to the fifth of June, one thousand eight hundred and thirtytwo, four thousand eight hundred and seventy dollars.

To John Randolph Clay, secretary of legation at St. Petersburg, as an outfit, and on account of his services as chargé d'affaires one year seven months and six days, seven thousand two hundred dollars.

To Cyrenius Hall, a resident of Upper Canada, the sum of five thousand three hundred dollars, (being the value of a schooner, the property of the said Hall, seized and libelled by the collector of the port of Venice, in Sandusky bay, in the year eighteen hundred and seventeen, which was ordered by a decree of the district court of Ohio to be restored, but which, previously to said decree, had been lost,) with interest on the said sum of five thousand three hundred dollars from the tenth day of August, in the year eighteen hundred and seventeen, till the eighth day of January, eighteen hundred and twenty-one; and with further interest on the said sum from the twenty-eighth day of January, eighteen hundred and thirty-one, till paid.

To the clerk employed in the Department of State as a translator of foreign languages, in addition to the salary now provided by law, six hundred dollars per annum.

To the clerk employed in the Department of State as agent of accounts, in addition to the salary now provided by law, three hundred dollars per

annum.

To indemnify Captain Daniel Turner, of the United States' navy, for the expense of conveying the Netherlands' minister, and his suite, from New York to Curacao, by order of the Secretary of the Navy, in the year one thousand eight hundred and twenty-eight, eleven hundred and eighty-two dollars seventy-eight cents.

To indemnify Captain George Washington Storer, of the United States navy, for the expenses of acommodating Commodore David Porter, chargé d'affaires of the United States at Constantinople, on board of the United States ship Boston; and for the expenses of conveying George Porter, consul of the United States at Tangiers, from Port Mahon to Tangiers; and of conveying Lieutenant Ebenezer Ridgway, consul of the United States at Tripoli, and his family, from Port Mahon to Tripoli, in all five hundred dollars.

To Michael Hogan, the sum of eighteen thousand one hundred and twelve dollars and fifty cents, in full, for diplomatic services rendered the United States in Chili, from the eighteenth day of September, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-one, to twenty-sixth of March, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-four, and from the twenty-ninth of October, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-nine, to second of May, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-one.

To George F. Brown, consular agent at Algiers, three thousand three hundred and sixty-six dollars for his services to the twentieth February, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-three.

For purchase of books for the library of Congress, five thousand dollars.

For payment of preparing and printing the documents ordered to be printed by Gales and Seaton, fifty thousand dollars, under the same restrictions and reservations as were contained in the appropriation for the same object at the last session.

For the payment to Jonathan Elliott for two hundred and fifty copies of the debates on the federal constitution, purchased by order of the House of Representatives [of the] United States, by their resolution of eighteenth February, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-three, three thousand one hundred and twenty-five dollars.

For two thousand copies of Cobb's Manual, purchased by virtue of a resolution of the House of Representatives of twenty-fifth of February last, one thousand dollars.

For the erection of a custom-house at Middletown, Connecticut, four thousand eight hundred dollars.

For salary of the principal and assistant librarians, contingent expenses of the library, and pay of messenger, three thousand five hundred and fifty dollars.

For alteration and repairs of the Capitol, five hundred dollars.

For the survey of the coast of the United States, twenty thousand dollars.

Coast survey.

For the purchase of ground occupied by the custom-house at Key Miscellaneous. West, four thousand dollars.

For defraying the expenses of repairing a building at Sandy Hook, belonging to the United States, three hundred and nineteen dollars thirty

one cents.

For the purchase of a building for the custom-house at Castine, Maine, and repairing the same, eight hundred and fifty dollars.

For the erection of a custom-house at New York, three hundred thousand dollars.

For compensation to the recorder, two commissioners, and translator, for the adjustment of private land claims in Missouri, according to the act of ninth July, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-two, eight thousand and fifty-five dollars seventy cents.

For contingent expenses and office rent, two hundred and fifty dollars. For the expense of bringing to the seat of governinent the votes for President and Vice President, seven thousand five hundred and twentyone dollars and seventy-five cents.

For the payment of balances to officers of the old direct tax and internal revenue, being the balance of an appropriation carried to the surplus fund, six thousand seven hundred dollars twenty-three cents.

For making good a deficiency in the fund for the relief of sick and disabled seamen, fifteen thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars.

For removing obstructions in the Savannah river, being part of the balance of an appropriation carried to the surplus fund, forty-three dollars six cents.

For preserving and enclosing the marine hospital at Norfolk, two thousand eight hundred and seventy-five dollars.

For hospital furniture, beds and bedding, of the new hospital, one thousand dollars.

For paying certain inhabitants of the late province of West Florida, now citizens of Louisiana and Mississippi, the claims that have been passed by the accounting officers of the Treasury Department, one thousand eight hundred and seventy-seven dollars forty-five cents, being the balance of a former appropriation, carried to the surplus fund, which is hereby re-appropriated.

For the purpose of carrying into effect the act entitled "An act for the payment of the horses and arms lost in the military service of the United States against the Indians on the frontiers of Illinois and Michigan territory, passed this session-there be appropriated to be paid out of any money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated, the sums which may be allowed according to that act.

To Hilliard Gray and Company, being a balance of a sum due them on their contract for printing a Manual of Infantry Tactics, four hundred and

Ante, p. 613.

Miscellaneous. ten dollars and fifty-nine cents, to be paid out of a sum formerly appropriated, a portion of which has been passed to the surplus fund.

Instalments un

For refunding any discriminating duties of tonnage which may have been collected on the vessels of Spain, France, or Portugal, subsequent to the abolition of such duties by either of those nations on vessels of the United States, two thousand dollars.

For compensation and expense of an agent to Havana to procure the archives of Florida, four thousand five hundred dollars.

For completing the custom-house at New London, Connecticut, four thousand dollars.

For surveying the lands in Illinois to which the Indian title has been extinguished by the late treaty with the Pattawatamies, twenty thousand dollars.

For the purchase of a site and the erection of a public warehouse in the city of Baltimore, fifty thousand dollars.

For the salaries of registers and receivers of the land offices established in the late Choctaw purchase, Mississippi, and for furnishing the offices with the necessary books and stationery, three thousand dollars.

For Thomas Douglass, attorney of East Florida, for professional services, three hundred dollars.

For the purchase of a site and erection of a custom-house in Newburyport, in the state of Massachusetts, fifteen thousand dollars.

For the expenses of printing the records in the Supreme Court of the United States, for the term of one thousand eight hundred and thirtytwo, the sum of three thousand dollars; and for the same accounts at the term in one thousand eight hundred and thirty-three, the like sum of three thousand dollars.

For surveying the public lands recently purchased from the Indians in the state of Indiana, twenty-five thousand dollars.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That the Secretary of the Treader treaty of in- sury be authorized to loan on interest the instalments under the treaty demnity with France to be of indemnity concluded at Paris on the fourth day of July, one thousand loaned. eight hundred and thirty-one, between the United States of America, and his majesty the king of the French, upon a pledge of the stock of the United States, or of the Bank of the United States, or to the Bank of the United States, subject nevertheless to be repaid to the public treasury whenever the commissioners appointed under the said treaty shall by their award direct to whom the said fund with the accumulated interest shall be distributed.

Pay of collectors, naval offi

cers, &c.

1832, ch. 227.

Chickasaw

treaty.

Northern boundary of Ohio. 1832, ch. 232.

SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That the Secretary of the Treasury be, and he is hereby authorized to pay to the collectors, naval officers, surveyors, gaugers, weighers and measurers, of the several ports of the United States, out of any money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated, such sums as will give to the said officers, respectively, the same compensation, in the year one thousand eight hundred and thirty-three, according to the importations of that year, as they would have been entitled to receive, if the act of the fourteenth July, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-two, had not gone into effect.

SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That the further sum of fifty thousand dollars be appropriated out of any moneys in the treasury not otherwise appropriated, to carry into effect the provisions of the late Chickasaw treaty.

SEC. 5. And be it further enacted, That the time limited for making observations and returns thereof under the act of fourteenth July, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-two, "to provide for the taking of certain observations preparatory to the adjustment of the northern boundary line of the state of Ohio," be, and the same is hereby extended until the thirty-first day of December, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-five; and that for the purpose of carrying into effect the provisions of the act

aforesaid, the sum of six thousand one hundred and ten dollars be appropriated for the purchase of instruments; and the further sum of seven thousand five hundred dollars for the expenses of taking such observations.

SEC. 6. And be it further enacted, That so much of the twenty-seventh section of the act approved third of March, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-five, as restricts the franking privilege of members of Congress to the period of sixty days before and after each session, shall be, and the same hereby is repealed, and it shall be lawful for the said privilege to be exercised by each member of Congress from the period of sixty days before he takes his seat in Congress until the meeting of the next Congress, and that said privilege shall be extended to all members of the present Congress until the next session.

APPROVED, March 2, 1833.

Act of July 14,

1832, ch. 227.

Act of March 2, 1833, ch. 57. Act of Aug. 30, 1822, ch. 270.

After Dec. 31, 1833, all duties

CHAP. LV.-An Act to modify the act of the fourteenth of July, one thousand March 2, 1833. eight hundred and thirty-two, and all other acts imposing duties on imports. (a) Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That from and after the thirtyfirst day of December, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-three, in all cases where duties are imposed on foreign imports, by the act of the fourteenth day of July, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-two, entitled "An act to alter and amend the several acts imposing duties on imports," or by any other act, shall exceed twenty per centum on the value thereof, one tenth part of such excess shall be deducted; from and after the thirty-first day of December, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-five, another tenth part thereof shall be deducted; from and after the thirty-first day of December, one thousand eight hundred and thirtyseven, another tenth part thereof shall be deducted; from and after the thirty-first day of December, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-nine, another tenth part thereof shall be deducted; and from and after the thirty-first day of December, one thousand eight hundred and forty-one, one half of the reside [residue] of such excess shall be deducted; and from and after the thirtieth day of June, one thousand eight hundred and forty-two, the other half thereof shall be deducted.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That so much of the second section of the act of the fourteenth of July aforesaid, as fixes the rate of duty on all milled and fulled cloth, known by the names of plains, kerseys, or kendal cottons, of which wool is the only material, the value whereof does not exceed thirty-five cents a square yard, at five per centum ad valorem, shall be, and the same is hereby, repealed. And the said

exceeding twenty per cent. to be reduced by biennially striking off one-tenth of the excess, &c.

Duty on plains, kerseys, &c.

raised

per cent.

to fifty

(a) The act of Congress of March 2, 1833, ch. 55, commonly called "The compromise act," did not, prospectively, repeal all duties upon imports after 30th June, 1842. Repealing only such parts of previous acts as were inconsistent with itself, it left in force, after June 1842, the same duties which were in force on the first of June, 1842. Aldridge and others v. Williams, 3 Howard, 1.

The provisions of the act of 1833, by which duties were to be levied, after June 1, 1842, on the home valuation, "under such regulations as may be prescribed by law," comprehended all the regulations existing under the law at the time when the duties, according to the home valuation, accrued. The regulations established by the 7th and 8th sections of the act of 1832, were, after the compromise act expired, in force, and were sufficient for the collection of duties after June 1, 1842. Ibid.

The 9th section of the act of 1832, makes it the duty of the Secretary of the Treasury, under the direction of the President, to establish, when necessary, rules and regulations to secure a just, faithful, and impartial appraisal of merchandise, and just and proper entries of them. It is very clear that any regulations within the authority thus given, are regulations prescribed by law. Ibid.

In expounding this law, the judgment of the court cannot, in any degree, be influenced by the construction placed upon it by individual members of Congress, in the debate which took place on its passage; nor by the motives or reasons assigned by them for supporting or opposing amendments offered. The law, as it passed, is the will of a majority of both houses, and the only mode in which this will is spoken, is in the act itself; and we must gather their intention from the language there used, comparing it, where any ambiguity exists, with laws upon the same subject; and looking, if necessary, to the public history of the times in which it was passed. Ibid. 24.

Existing laws continued until June 30, 1812.

Duties to be paid in cash, &c.

Goods to be valued at ports

of entry.

Articles free

1833.

articles shall be subject to the same duty of fifty per centum, as is provided by the said second section for other manufactures of wool; which duty shall be liable to the same deductions as are prescribed by the first section of this act.

SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That, until the thirtieth day of June, one thousand eight hundred and forty-two, the duties imposed by existing laws, as modified by this act, shall remain and continue to be collected. And from and after the day last aforesaid, all duties upon imports shall be collected in ready money; and all credits now allowed by law, in the payment of duties, shall be, and hereby are abolished; and such duties shall be laid for the purpose of raising such revenue as may be necessary to an economical administration of the government; and from and after the day last aforesaid, the duties required to be paid by law on goods, wares, and merchandise, shall be assessed upon the value thereof at the port where the same shall be entered, under such regulations as may be prescribed by law.

SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That, in addition to the articles now after Dec. 31, exempt by the act of the fourteenth of July, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-two, and the existing laws, from the payment of duties, the following articles imported from and after the thirty-first day of December, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-three, and until the thirtieth day of June, one thousand eight hundred and forty-two, shall also [be] admitted to entry, free from duty, to wit: bleached and unbleached linens, table-linen, linen napkins, and linen cambrics, and worsted stuff goods, shawls, and other manufactures of silk and worsted, manufactures of silk, or of which silk shall be the component material of chief value, coming from this side of the Cape of Good Hope, except sewing silk.

Articles free

1842.

SEC. 5. And be it further enacted, That from and after the said thirafter June 30, tieth day of June, one thousand eight hundred and forty-two, the following articles shall be admitted to entry, free from duty, to wit: indigo, quicksilver, sulphur, crude saltpetre, grindstones, refined borax, emory, opium, tin in plates and sheets, gum Arabic, gum Senegal, lac dye, madder, madder root, nuts and berries used in dyeing, saffron, turmeric, woad or pastel, aloes, ambergris, Burgundy pitch, cochineal, chamomile flowers, coriander seed, catsup, chalk, cocculus indicus, horn plates for lanterns, ox horns, other horns and tips, india-rubber, manufactured ivory, juniper berries; musk, nuts of all kinds, oil of juniper, unmanufactured rattans and reeds, tortoise shell, tin foil, shellac, vegetables used principally in dyeing and composing dyes, weld, and all articles employed chiefly for dyeing, except allum, copperas, bichromate of potash, prussiate of potash, chromate of potash, and nitrate of lead, aqua fortis, and tartaric acids. And all imports on which the first section of this act may operate, and all articles now admitted to entry [free] from duty, or paying a less rate of duty than twenty per centum ad valorem, before the said thirtieth day of June, one thousand eight hundred and forty-two, from and after that day may be admitted to entry subject to such duty, not exceeding twenty per centum ad valorem, as shall be provided for by law.

Duties on certain classes of

articles after June 30, 1842.

Conflicting acts repealed.

Proviso.

SEC. 6. And be it further enacted, That so much of the act of the fourteenth day of July, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-two, or of any other act, as is inconsistent with this act, shall be, and the same is hereby, repealed: Provided, That nothing herein contained shall be so construed as to prevent the passage, prior or subsequent to the said thirtieth day of June, one thousand eight hundred and forty-two, of any act or acts, from time to time, that may be necessary to detect, prevent, or punish evasions of the duties on imports imposed by law, nor to prevent the passage of any act, prior to the thirtieth day of June, one thousand eight hundred and forty-two, in the contingency either of excess or deficiency of revenue, altering the rates of duties on articles which, by the aforesaid act of fourteenth day of July, one thousand eight hundred and