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ings of iron, anchors, tin and pewter ware. Upon all CHAPTER other articles, including manufactures of wool, cotton, and linen, five per cent. ad valorem was to be charged, 1789. except on saltpeter, tin, lead, old pewter, brass, iron and brass wire, copper in plates, wool, dye-stuffs, hides, and furs, to be free of duty. It was provided in a subsequent act that in all cases of duties ad valorem, the value should be ascertained by adding ten per cent., or, if the goods came from the Cape of Good Hope or beyond, twenty per cent. to the cost at the place of exportation. For the encouragement of domestic shipping, when the goods were imported in American vessels, a tenth part of the duties was to be remitted. Upon all goods re-exported within twelve months from the date of importation, a drawback was to be allowed of the whole amount of duties, one per cent. being deducted. The act was to go into effect from and after the first of August.

The Tonnage Act imposed a duty of six cents per ton upon all vessels American built and owned entering any American port from any foreign country. Upon vessels American built, but owned abroad, the duty was thirty cents per ton, and fifty cents upon all other vessels. American fishing and coasting vessels were to pay but once a year; but foreign vessels, if employed in the coasting trade, from which it was not thought expedient entirely to exclude them, were to pay a new tonnage duty upon every entry.

For the due collection of these duties, the whole coast of the United States was divided by another act into collection districts, to the number of about seventy. The more important districts were to have three principal officers: a collector, to have, by himself or his deputy, the general superintendence of the entry and clearance of vessels, the receipt of duties, and the appointment of all

CHAPTER inferior officers, such as weighers, gaugers, measurers. I. and inspectors; a naval officer, to act as a check upon the 1789. collector, and in that capacity to countersign all docu

ments; and a surveyor, whose duty it was to superin. tend the inferior officers, and to place an inspector on board all vessels as soon as they arrived, charged tc ascertain the quantities of goods on board on which duties were payable, and to allow none to be landed without a permit. The less important districts had a collector and surveyor, and the least important a collector only. Masters of vessels arriving from foreign ports were required to deliver to the first custom-house officer coming on board two manifests or written statements of the cargo, with the names of the consignees. They were also required to enter their vessels at the custom-house within forty-eight hours after their arrival, and to swear to the truth of the manifest; nor might any goods be landed, except in open day and with a permit, under pain of forfeiture. To obtain a permit, the consignee must enter the goods at the custom-house, under oath, and pay the duties. All tonnage duties and all amounts of fifty dollars or less were to be paid in cash. When the duties exceeded that sum, four months credit was allowed on imports from the West Indies; six months on other goods, and in the case of Madeira wine, twelve months credit. False entries, and all other attempts at evasion of duties, were punishable with forfeiture, and false swearing by fine and imprisonment. This system of collection, except the credit on duties, was mainly derived from the usages of the old royal and recent state custom-houses, and, with some slight modifications in the details, and the abolition of the credit system, still continues in force. To aid the provisions of this act, the merchants of all the principal ports entered into as

I.

sociations for the prevention of smuggling; and the CHAPTER revenue system was found to work much more easily, and proved more productive than had been expected.

A fourth act relating to trade and navigation provided for the registration of all American vessels engaged in foreign commerce, and the enrollment of those employed in the fisheries and coasting trade, except those under twenty tons burden, which were to have a license. This was with the view of ascertaining, not the tonnage only, but the ownership and the American character of the vessels, an authenticated copy of the register, which the vessel carried with her, serving for that purpose both at home and abroad. On every change of ownership a new register was required, without which the legal title did not pass. By the same act the coasting-trade was regu lated, the vessels employed in that business being subjected, in entering and clearing, and in respect to their cargoes, to restrictions deemed necessary to prevent smuggling.

Another act assumed for the United States the support of all light-houses, buoys, beacons, and public piers, on condition that within one year the states within which they were respectively situated should vest in the United States not only the property in these structures, with the lands appertaining to them, but exclusive jurisdiction also within their circuit, reserving, however, the right of the state to serve civil and criminal process therein. Such cessions, under a provision in the Constitution to that effect, have ever since been uniformly required in case of all light-houses, forts, arsenals, dockyards, and other structures erected for the use of the United States.

Having thus made provision for collecting a revenueindeed, before all these bills were perfected-the House

1789.

CHAPTER turned its attention to the reorganization of the execu

I. tive departments. A Department of Foreign Affairs was

1789. first established-a mere continuation of the old ContiMay 20. nental department of that name; but after the failure

of repeated attempts by Vining of Delaware to establish a separate department for Home Affairs, these two services were combined; and by a subsequent act of the same session, the Department of Foreign Affairs became the Department of State, having charge not only of all foreign negotiations and of all the papers connected therewith, but the custody also, as well of all the papers and documents of the late Continental Congress, as of all engrossed acts and resolutions of the new government having the sanction of law; also the ensealing of all commissions for civil affairs, the seal adopted by the late Continental Congress being still continued in use. Sixty years elapsed before Vining's plan was carried out, by the transfer of Home Affairs to a separate department.

The Treasury Department was reorganized substantially on the plan adopted by the Continental Congress in 1781; but the title of its head was changed from Superintendent of Finance to Secretary of the Treasury. It was made the duty of this officer to digest plans for the improvement and management of the revenue, and for the support of the public credit; to prepare and report estimates of revenue and expenditure; to superintend the collection of the revenue; to decide upon the form of stating accounts; to execute such serv ices relative to the sales of the public lands as might be required of him by law; to grant warrants on the treasury for all appropriations made by law; and to report in person or writing, as might be required, to either house of Congress, as to all matters referred to him or appertaining to his office.

The secretary was allowed an assistant, to be appoint- CHAPTER ed by himself. The other subordinate officers of the department were a Controller, an Auditor, a Register, and a 1789. Treasurer. To the Controller belonged the final decision upon the legality of all claims on the government, and the superintendence of all legal proceedings to recover debts due to the United States. It was his duty also to countersign all warrants on the treasury, without which they had no validity. To the Auditor belonged the examination of vouchers; it being his duty to ascertain and certify to the formal correctness of all accounts against the government. It was the duty of the Register to preserve these vouchers; to keep an account of all receipts, expenditures, and debts, and to record all warrants on the treasury as a preliminary to their payment. The Treasurer had the custody of the moneys of the United States, and was to receive and pay them out according to the forms prescribed by law. By the regulations of the treasury, as thus organized, no public money could be paid out except under an appropriation made by Congress, and after a sanction of the claim as to its amount and validity, first by the Auditor, and then by the Controller, and on a warrant signed by the Secretary of the Treasury, countersigned by the Controller, and recorded by the Register. All receipts for money paid into the treasury, in order to be valid, must be indorsed on warrants signed by the Secretary, countersigned by the Controller, and recorded by the Register. This system, extended by the appointment of additional controllers and auditors, having charge of particular classes of accounts, and of a Solicitor of the Treasury, to superintend legal proceedings, still remains in force very much as originally established. All officers of the treasury were specially prohibited from being concerned in any commerce