United States Statutes at Large/Volume 4/19th Congress/1st Session/Chapter 36
[Obsolete.]
Chap. XXXVI.—An Act to provide for the apprehension and delivery of deserters from French ships in the ports of the United States.
On application of a consul or vice consul of France, made in writing, stating that the person therein named has deserted from a public or private vessel of France in any port of the United States, he shall be delivered up.Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That, on the application of a consul or vice consul of France, made in writing, stating that the person therein named has deserted from a public or private vessel of France, while in any port of the United States, and on proof, by the exhibition of the register of the vessel, ship’s roll, or other official document, that the person named belonged, at the time of desertion, to the crew of said vessel, it shall be the duty of any court, judge, justice, or other magistrate, having competent power to issue warrants, to cause the said person to be arrested for examination; and if, on the examination, the facts stated are found to be true, the person arrested, not being a citizen of the United States, shall be delivered up to the consul or vice consul, to be sent back to the dominions of France; or, on the request, and at the expense of the said consul or vice consul, shall be detained, until the consul or vice consul finds an opportunity to send him back to the dominions of France:Proviso. Provided nevertheless, That no person shall be detained more than three months after his arrest, but at the end of that time shall be set at liberty, and shall not be again molested, for the same cause.
Act to be in force so long as the convention of June 24, 1822, be obligatory.Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That this act shall continue in force, so long as the convention of the twenty-fourth of June, eighteen hundred and twenty-two, between the United States and France, shall be mutually obligatory on the parties to it, and no longer.
Approved, May 4, 1826.