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ence to the state lines, no district lying in more than one state; but this has long since been disregarded, and, as the result of subsequent legislation, district lines now have no reference to any local divisions.

The officers provided for were the collectors, deputy collectors, naval officers, surveyors, weighers, measurers, gaugers and inspectors. Each district was allowed a collector at its port of entry and a surveyor at each of the ports of delivery. The ports of entry also had a surveyor and the larger ones a naval officer. Thus the higher officers of what has since become the normal port were the collector, naval officer and surveyor. 1 As their duties have in general remained the same, it may be profitable to notice how they were fixed by this act.

The collector was to receive all reports, manifests and documents, and to keep a record of them, to receive the entry of all ships and goods together with the invoices of the latter. He was to estimate the duties payable thereon and endorse the same on each entry; to grant all permits of unloading, etc., and to employ all weighers, measurers, gaugers and inspectors in addition to such other persons as were necessary. With the assent of "the 'principal officer' of the treasury department" he could designate store-houses for the safe-keeping of goods.

The naval officer was to countersign all orders of the collector, to receive copies of all manifests, and to act in general as a check upon the collector.

The surveyor was to superintend all weighers, measurers and gaugers, and to have general supervision of the boarding of arriving vessels and the inspection of their cargoes.

The deputy collector was appointed by the collector, who was responsible for his acts, and might exercise the same authority as the collector.

1 Appointed by the President by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. ? The usefulness of this officer has been often doubted, and the abolition of the office altogether strongly urged.

2. Entry of Goods and Collection of Duties. The main provisions of the act and the general method of entry and collection were the same as those previously explained under the New York law of 1784. The master was to deliver two manifests to the boarding officer-one of which was signed and returned to him and the other transmitted to the collector (§ 10). He was also to make entry, under oath, within forty-eight hours after arrival of the vessel, and further entry of goods on board was to be made by the owners. (§ 11).

The inspector took the place of the "land and tide waiter." He had the same functions except that at the expiration of fifteen days' from the arrival of the ship he was to take charge of all goods not yet unloaded and hand them over to the collector to be kept for nine months at the risk of the owner in the public stores. If not claimed within that time, they were to be appraised by two reputable merchants and sold for the benefit of the United States.

Ad valorem duties upon all goods at the place of importation should be "estimated by adding twenty per cent. to the actual cost thereof if imported from the Cape of Good Hope or any place beyond the same, and ten per cent on the actual cost if imported from any other place or country, exclusive of. all charges" (§ 17). Before permit for landing goods should be given, the duties were to be paid in cash, if under fifty dollars, if more than that sum they might be secured by a bond. The bonds were to run from four to twelve months, according to the class of goods. They were to be signed by one or more sufficient sureties, and in each case of default to be prosecuted by the collector. Ten per cent. discount was allowed for prompt payment (§ 19).

This limit, as found in § 56 of the law of 1799, remained the same until the Act of March 2, 1861, 36 Congress, Sess. II, Ch. 81, where eight days was allowed for a ship under 300 tons, twelve days for one between 300 and 800 tons, and fifteen days for those of over 800 tons.

All drawbacks allowed by law on the exportation of goods, wares and merchandise imported, should be paid or allowed by the collector at whose office the said goods, etc., had been entered and not otherwise, less one per cent. which was retained for the benefit of the United States (§ 31). The bounty allowed on the exportation of fish was to be paid in the same

manner.

If any officer should receive a fee or bribe he should forfeit not less than $200 nor more than $2,000 for each offense, and be forever disabled from holding any office of trust or profit under the United States (§$ 35). There was a penalty of not more than $1,000 and imprisonment for not more than one year for false oath of importer or ship master. All penalties, fines and forfeitures were to be divided, one moiety to go to the United States, the other to the collector, naval officer and surveyor of the district, or any one or two of them in the district. But in all cases where there was an informant he should receive the moiety apportioned to the United States (§ 38).

This law remained in force barely one year, and was repealed by the act of August 4, 1790,2 which was little more than a rearrangement of the one it superseded. This act still more hopelessly jumbled up the officers of the various districts, collectors being assigned to single ports within other collectors' districts, and the whole list being arranged seemingly without any system whatever.

The only additional features of any importance were those regulating the unloading of vessels driven into port by stress of weather and allowing the sale of as much of the cargo as was necessary to pay for repairs. Certain allowances were made for tare, drafts, etc., on bulk goods. Two per cent. was allowed for leakage on wines, etc. Damaged goods in both

1 Act of July 4 allowed drawbacks on all articles shipped within twelve months of their entry except on distilled spirits other than brandy or geneva. 2 Statutes at Large, Vol. I., p. 145, Chap. xxxv.

these acts were appraised in the same manner as goods with a false or defective invoice, or with none at all (§ 35).1 The President was also authorized to order revenue cutters to be built, officered and armed.

No further changes of importance were made in custom regulations during the next nine years, although the tariff rates were raised and changed at various times. On March 3, 1797, 2 the percentages received by the different officers at the various ports on the gross receipts at their respective points were rearranged and definitely fixed, and the compensations of the lower officers were stated.3

3. System Established by Act of 1799.

On March 2, 1799, all former laws were repealed and their place taken by the elaborate enactment which "has remained to this day as the foundation and the framework of subsequent legislation for the taking possession of arriving merchandise and the levying and collecting of duties thereon."

"4

Up to this time the yearly income from customs had never reached ten million dollars, and was far more evenly distributed among the different ports than it has since been. The number of officers at any port was small and the collector had been allowed to use his own common sense and business ability with regard to the direction of office methods and details of the administration, and might please himself as to the forms of most of the documents, bonds, etc., required to pass through his hands. But it was evident that to afford any adequate method of supervision or control, more minute regulations must be imposed and standard forms established. The system had been in operation so long that inspection of

1 The laws of the colonies had been much more liberal than this, in some the allowance being fixed at as high as twenty per cent.

2 Statutes at Large, Vol. I., p. 502.

3 These were increased by act of 1832 and maximum rates fixed.

* Secretary Manning in Finance Report for 1885, Vol. II.,

p. iv.

5 In 1800 it was $9,080,932.

accumulated records and comparison of forms and methods followed in the light of the experience which their operation had given, could furnish an ample basis on which to construct a more complete working system-a codification, as it were, of customs administrative law. This Congress proceeded to do, and with such remarkable skill and thoroughness that, although our revenues from imports have doubled many times over since then, and in spite of the bewildering complexity and variety of articles subject to duty as well as of the improved means of transportation and the many changes in the facilities and methods of conducting business, the act passed in 1799 has remained the trunk upon which all subsequent enactments have been grafted. It fills eighty-two pages in the statute book and goes into great detail, containing no less than fifty-six forms, prescribing eleven different bonds, indicating fourteen different kinds of schedules and providing for nineteen separate oaths.

The system provided for local agencies with the collectors at their head. The collector was the agent for communication with the other departments and with the central authorities. In the larger ports his more important acts were supervised by a naval officer, and his chief lieutenant out of doors was the surveyor. The duties of the minor officers were more or less minutely defined and were in general as previously described. The country was again redistricted, this time on a definite plan, with one port of entry in each district at which the collector of the district resided. There might also be a surveyor, and possibly a naval officer, according to the importance of the district. Other ports of delivery of sufficient importance within the district were provided with surveyors. The principal officers were required to give bonds, and all officers were required to take oath that they would faithfully perform their duties. This was taken before any competent magistrate by the collector, and before the collector by all the other officers, and was then to be transmitted to the comptroller.

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