- sion of its rights, with respect to such an intercourse."[1]
Retaliatory Acts,
to be enforced conditionally.
In retaliation, Congress on the 1st of March,
1817, passed an Act providing that "on and after
the 30th of June of that year a duty of two dollars
per ton" should be paid "on all foreign vessels
which should enter in the United States, from any
foreign place to and with which the vessels of the
United States are not ordinarily permitted to enter
and trade." And it was further enacted, in almost
the exact words of the English Navigation Laws,
that after the 30th of September, 1817, no merchandise
should be imported into the United States from
any foreign place except in vessels of the United
States, or in "such foreign vessels as wholly belong
to the citizens or subjects of that country of which
the merchandise is the growth, production, or manufacture,
or from which it can only be, or most usually
is, first shipped for transportation." Adding that,
"the regulations aforesaid are only applicable to
the vessels of such foreign nations as have adopted
or may adopt similar provisions;" and providing
that "merchandise imported into the United States
contrary to the Act aforesaid,[2] and the vessel in
which the same is imported, are forfeited to the
United States." It was further determined that "the
- ↑ The United States, in 1816, enacted "that so much of an Act as imposes a higher duty of tonnage or of import on vessels, and articles imported in vessels of the United States, contrary to the provisions of the countries between the United States and his Britannic Majesty, the ratifications whereof were mutually exchanged the 22nd of December, 1815, be, from and after the date of the ratification of the said convention, and during the continuance thereof, deemed and taken to be of force and effect."
- ↑ Act, March 1, 1817.
