United States Statutes at Large/Volume 2/11th Congress/1st Session/Chapter 8
[Obsolete.]
Chap. VIII.—An Act for the remission of certain penalties and forfeitures, and for other purposes.
President authorized to remit penalties and forfeitures, in the case of certain fugitives from Cuba, incurred under the act to prohibit the importation of slaves.
Act of March 2, 1807, ch. 22.Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the President of the United States be, and he is hereby authorized to remit any penalty or forfeiture which may have been incurred in consequence of the violation of any of the provisions of the act, entituled “An act to prohibit the importation of slaves into any port or place within the jurisdiction of the United States, from and after the first day of January, in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and eight,” by any person who may have been concerned in bringing into any port or place within the jurisdiction of the United States, any slave or slaves, owned by any person or persons, who shall have been forcibly expelled from the island of Cuba, by order of the government thereof: and the President of the United States is hereby further authorized to release all vessels and other effects, which may have been or may hereafter be seized therefor:Proviso, that the President shall be satisfied that the person was impelled to import the slave or slaves; and provided, the slave has been brought in the same vessel with the owner. Provided, that he shall be first satisfied in every case, that the person thus concerned in bringing in such slave or slaves as aforesaid, was impelled thereto, by circumstances which, in the judgment of the President of the United States, would justify the act; and without any intention on the part of such person voluntarily to evade any of the provisions of the act aforesaid: And provided also, that such slave or slaves shall have been brought into the United States in the same vessel and at the same time as their owner or owners respectively.
President authorized to make arrangements with the French minister for transporting the exiles to France, &c. &c.
Appropriation.Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That the President of the United States be, and he is hereby authorized to make any arrangement with the minister plenipotentiary of France, which he may deem necessary and proper for transporting such of the unfortunate exiles from the said island of Cuba, with their effects, as shall desire to depart from the United States to any port or place within the territories of France, her colonies or dependencies, any law to the contrary notwithstanding: Provided, that the vessels transporting the same shall depart only in ballast, and without taking on board any other cargo than such sea stores as may be deemed necessary for the voyage in every case. And to enable the President to carry into effect any such arrangement, as well as for supplying, temporarily, such of the unfortunate exiles with the necessaries of subsistence, as may be in actual want thereof, there be appropriated the sum of fifteen thousand dollars, or so much thereof as may be necessary for these objects, to be paid out of any money in the treasury, not otherwise appropriated:Conditions upon which it is to be applied. Provided however, that all monies which may be drawn out of the treasury, in virtue of this act, shall be charged to the French government, under such stipulations for reimbursing the same, on the part of the minister plenipotentiary of France, as, in the judgment of the President may be deemed proper for that object.
Interest of the U. States in the proceeds of the sale of the Clara given up.Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That all claim and demand of the United States to any monies arising from the sale of the ship Clara, sold in pursuance of a decree of the district court for Orleans district, holden in March, one thousand eight hundred and nine, be, and the same is hereby relinquished and remitted to Andrew Foster and Jacob P. Giraud, late owners of the said ship Clara, any thing in any former act to the contrary notwithstanding.
Approved, June 28, 1809.