Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 2.djvu/737

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

TWELFTH CONGRESS.⁠Sess. I. Ch. 50.⁠1812.

and shall never thereafter be allowed a credit for duties on any goods, wares or merchandise, imported by him or them into any of the ports of the United States; and the master or commander of such ship or vessel, as well as all other persons who shall knowingly be concerned in such prohibited foreign voyage, shall each respectively forfeit and pay a sum not exceeding twenty thousand, nor less than one thousand dollars for every such offence, whether the vessel be seized and condemned or not; and the oath or affirmation of any master or commander, knowingly offending against the provisions of this section, shall ever thereafter be inadmissible before any collector of the customs of the United States.

Penalties, how to be recovered, distributed, &c.
1799, ch. 22.Sec. 4. And be it further enacted, That all penalties and forfeitures arising under, or incurred by virtue of, this act, may be sued for, prosecuted and recovered, with costs of suit, by action of debt, in the name of the United States of America, or by indictment or information, in any court having competent jurisdiction to try the same; and shall be distributed and accounted for in the manner prescribed by the act, entituled “An act to regulate the collection of duties on imports and tonnage,” passed the second day of March, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-nine; and such penalties may be examined, mitigated or remitted, in like manner, and under like conditions, regulations and restrictions, as are prescribed, authorized and directed by the act, entituled1797, ch. 13.
1800, ch. 6.
Proviso. “An act to provide for mitigating or remitting the forfeitures, penalties and disabilities accruing in certain cases therein mentioned,” passed the third day of March, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-seven, and made perpetual by an act passed on the eleventh day of February, one thousand eight hundred: Provided, that all penalties and forfeitures which shall have been incurred by virtue of this act, previous to the expiration thereof, may and shall thereafter be recovered and distributed in like manner, as if this act had continued in full force and virtue.

Approved, April 4, 1812.

Statute Ⅰ.

April 8, 1812.

Chap. L.—An Act for the admission of the State of Louisiana into the Union, and to extend the laws of the United States to the said state.^[1]

Whereas, the representatives of the people of all that part of the territory or country ceded, under the name of “Louisiana,” by the treaty

↑ The decisions of the Supreme Court on the extension of the laws of the United States to Louisiana, and the practice of the courts of the United States in the district of Louisiana, have been:—
As, by the laws of Louisiana, questions of fact in civil cases are tried by the court, unless either of the parties demand a jury, in an action of debt on a judgment, the interest on the original judgment may be computed, and make part of the judgment in Louisiana, without a writ of inquiry, and the intervention of a jury. Mayhew v. Thatcher, 6 Wheat. 129; 5 Cond. Rep. 34.
By the treaty by which Louisiana was acquired, the United States stipulated that the inhabitants of the ceded territories should be protected in the free enjoyment of their property. The United States, as a just nation, regard this stipulation as the avowal of a principle which would have been held equally sacred, although it had not been inserted in the treaty. Soulard et al. v. The United States, 4 Peters, 511.
The term property, as applied to lands, comprehends every species of title, incohate or complete. It is supposed to embrace those rights which lie in contract; those which are executory, as well as those which are executed. In this respect, the relation of the inhabitants of Louisiana to their government, is not changed. The new government takes the place of that which is passed away. Ibid.
By the provisions of the acts of Congress, Louisiana, when she came into the Union, had organized therein a district court of the United States, having the same jurisdiction, except as to appeals and writs of error, as the circuit courts of the United States in other states; and the modes of proceeding in that court, were required to be according to the principles, rules, and usages which belong to courts of equity, as contradistinguished from courts of common law. And whether there were or not, in the several states, courts of equity proceeding according to such principles and usages, made no difference, according to the construction uniformly given by the supreme court. Livingston v. Story, 9 Peters, 632.
The provisions of the act of Congress, of 1824, relative to the practice of the courts of the United States in Louisiana, contain the descriptive term civil actions, which embrace cases at law and in equity; and may be fairly construed as used in contradistinction to criminal causes. They apply equally to cases in equity; and if there are any laws in Louisiana directing the mode of proceeding in equity causes, they are adopted by that act, and will govern the practice in the courts of the United States. Ibid.
Under the law of Louisiana, there are two kinds of pledges, the pawn and the antichresis. A thing is said to be pawned, when a movable is given as a security; the antichresis consists of immovables. Livingston v. Story, 11 Peters, 351.
L. conveyed, in 1822, in fee simple, to F. and S., certain real estate in New Orleans, by deed, for

[p737-1] The decisions of the Supreme Court on the extension of the laws of the United States to Louisiana, and the practice of the courts of the United States in the district of Louisiana, have been:—
As, by the laws of Louisiana, questions of fact in civil cases are tried by the court, unless either of the parties demand a jury, in an action of debt on a judgment, the interest on the original judgment may be computed, and make part of the judgment in Louisiana, without a writ of inquiry, and the intervention of a jury. Mayhew v. Thatcher, 6 Wheat. 129; 5 Cond. Rep. 34.
By the treaty by which Louisiana was acquired, the United States stipulated that the inhabitants of the ceded territories should be protected in the free enjoyment of their property. The United States, as a just nation, regard this stipulation as the avowal of a principle which would have been held equally sacred, although it had not been inserted in the treaty. Soulard et al. v. The United States, 4 Peters, 511.
The term property, as applied to lands, comprehends every species of title, incohate or complete. It is supposed to embrace those rights which lie in contract; those which are executory, as well as those which are executed. In this respect, the relation of the inhabitants of Louisiana to their government, is not changed. The new government takes the place of that which is passed away. Ibid.
By the provisions of the acts of Congress, Louisiana, when she came into the Union, had organized therein a district court of the United States, having the same jurisdiction, except as to appeals and writs of error, as the circuit courts of the United States in other states; and the modes of proceeding in that court, were required to be according to the principles, rules, and usages which belong to courts of equity, as contradistinguished from courts of common law. And whether there were or not, in the several states, courts of equity proceeding according to such principles and usages, made no difference, according to the construction uniformly given by the supreme court. Livingston v. Story, 9 Peters, 632.
The provisions of the act of Congress, of 1824, relative to the practice of the courts of the United States in Louisiana, contain the descriptive term civil actions, which embrace cases at law and in equity; and may be fairly construed as used in contradistinction to criminal causes. They apply equally to cases in equity; and if there are any laws in Louisiana directing the mode of proceeding in equity causes, they are adopted by that act, and will govern the practice in the courts of the United States. Ibid.
Under the law of Louisiana, there are two kinds of pledges, the pawn and the antichresis. A thing is said to be pawned, when a movable is given as a security; the antichresis consists of immovables. Livingston v. Story, 11 Peters, 351.
L. conveyed, in 1822, in fee simple, to F. and S., certain real estate in New Orleans, by deed, for

[1]

Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 2.djvu/737

Navigation menu

Search