CHAP. XVIII.—An Act to revive, and continue in force, the seventh section of an act, entitled "An act supplementary to the several acts for the adjustment of land claims in the state of Louisiana," approved the eleventh May, eighteen hundred and twenty, and for other purposes. (a) Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That the seventh section of an act, entitled "An act supplementary to the several acts for the adjustment of land claims in the state of Louisiana," approved the eleventh of May, one thousand eight hundred and twenty, in relation to back concessions, be, and the same is hereby, revived, and continued in full force and effect, for the term of eighteen months from and after the passing of this act. SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That so much of the lot of land on which is situated the navy store-house, in New Orleans, as may be necessary to continue the street now commenced, leading from Condi street to Market-hall, is hereby granted to, and vested in, the corporation of the city of New Orleans, for the purpose of continuing the said street. APPROVED, February 28, 1823. CHAP. XIX. An Act to repeal so much of an act, passed the eighteenth April, one Feb. 28, 1823. thousand eight hundred and six, as limits the price of certain lands in the state of Tennessee. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That so much of an act passed the eighteenth day of April, one thousand eight hundred and six, entitled "An act to authorize the state of Tennessee to issue grants and perfect titles to certain lands therein described, and to settle the claims to the vacant and unappropriated lands within the same," which provides "that the lowest price of all lands granted or sold within the ceded territory shall be the same as shall be established by Congress for the lands of the United States," be, and the same is hereby, repealed; and the legislature of the state of Tennessee are authorized and empowered to affix such price to the lands in said ceded territory, as, in their discretion, may be deemed right and proper; any thing in said act of the eighteenth of April, one thousand eight hundred and six, to the contrary notwithstanding. APPROVED, February 28, 1823. Part of a land law of Tennessee of April 18, 1806, ch. 31, repealed. STATUTE II. Act of March 2, 1799, ch. 22. From March CHAP. XXI.-An Act supplementary to, and to amend an act, entitled "An act March 1, 1823. to regulate the collection of duties on imports and tonnage," passed second March, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-nine, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That, from and after the third day of March next, no goods, wares, or merchandise, subject to ad valorem duty, and imported into the United States, shall be admitted to an entry unless the true invoice of the same be presented to the collector at the time of entry, or unless the same be admitted in the mode authorized and prescribed in the next ensuing section of this act: Provided, That this prohibition shall not extend to such goods, wares, or merchandise, as shall have been taken from a wreck. SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That when no invoice has been received of any goods, wares, or merchandise, imported and subject to ad valorem duty as aforesaid, the owner, importer, consignee, or agent, (a) See notes to the act of May 11, 1820, ch. 87. 2, the true invoice of goods valorem duty to subject to ad be produced. Proviso. Owner, importer, &c., to make oath of not having re VOL. III.-92 ment. Proviso. ceived invoice, shall make oath of the same, and the collector of the port shall be, when the goods and he is hereby, authorized, if in his judgment the circumstances will be admitted to an entry under which such goods, wares, or merchandise, shall have been imupon appraise- ported, or any other circumstances connected therewith, render it expedient, to admit the same to an entry, on an appraisment [appraisement] thereof, duly made, in the manner hereinafter prescribed: Provided, The owner, importer, consignee, or agent, of such goods, wares, or merchandise, shall, previous to such entry, give bond, with sufficient sureties, to the United States, to produce to such collector the invoice of the same within eight months from the time of entry, if the same were imported from any port or place on this side, and within eighteen months, if from any port or place beyond, the Cape of Good Hope or Cape Horn, or from the Cape of Good Hope, and to pay any amount of duty to which it may appear, by such invoice, the said goods, wares, or merchandise, were subject, over and above the amount of duties estimated on the said appraisement. When goods have not been entered, they shall be deposit ed in the public warehouses un til the invoice be produced. Proviso. SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That when goods, wares, or merchandise, imported into the United States, shall not have been entered in pursuance of the provisions of this or any other act regulating imports and tonnage, the same shall be deposited, according to existing laws, in the public warehouse, and shall there remain, at the expense and risk of the owner, until such invoice be produced: Provided, however, That, when the said goods, wares, or merchandise, shall have remained in the public warehouse nine months, if imported from any port or place on this side, and eighteen months, if from any port or place beyond, the Cape of Good Hope, or Cape Horn, or from the Cape of Good Hope, and no invoice shall be produced, then the said goods, wares, and merchandise, shall be appraised, and the duties estimated thereon in the manner hereinafter directed: Provided also,That nothing herein contained shall be understood to prohibit the sale of such quantities of goods, stored as aforesaid, as may be necessary to discharge the duties thereon, and all intervening charges, at the time or times when such duties shall become due and payable And provided further, That the collector be, and he is hereby, authorized to direct an earlier sale of articles of a perishable nature, and of such as may be liable to waste; first giving such notice of the sale as circumstances may admit, by public advertisement, in one or more papers, at or nearest to the port where such sale may be had: which said articles the collector shall previously cause to be appraised, and the duties estimated thereon, in the manner hereinafter directed; and the proceeds of such sale shall be disposed of at the expiration of the said periods of nine and eighteen months, respectively, as the case may be, in the manner prescribed by the fifty-sixth section of the act regulating the collection of duties on imports and tonnage, passed the second day of March, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-nine: Provided also, That nothing in this section shall be construed to affect the cases contemplated by the fifty-sixth section of the act regulating the collection of duties on imports and tonnage, passed the second of March, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-nine. SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That, in all cases where goods, wares, or merchandise, shall have been imported into the United States, and shall be entered by invoice, one of the following oaths, according to the nature of the case, shall be administered by the collector of the port at the time of entry, to the owner, importer, consignee, or agent, in lieu of the oath now prescribed by law in such case: I, Consignee, Importer, or Agent's Oath. do solemnly and truly (swear or affirm) that the invoice and bill of lading now presented by me to the collector of the true and only invoice and bill of lading by me received, of all the , are whereof goods, wares, and merchandise, imported in the Owner's oath, in cases where goods, wares, or merchandise, have been actually purchased. I do solemnly and truly (swear or affirm) that the entry now delivered by me to the collector of contains a just and true account of all the goods, wares, and merchandise, imported by, or consigned to, me, in the whereof is master, from ; that the invoice which I now produce, contains a just and faithful account of the actual cost of the said goods, wares, and merchandise, of all charges thereon, including charges of purchasing, carriages, bleaching, dyeing, dressing, finishing, putting up, and packing, and no other discount, drawback, or bounty, but such as has been actually allowed on the same; that I do not know nor believe in the existence of any invoice or bill of lading other than those now produced by me, and that they are in the state in which I actually received them. And I do further solemnly and truly (swear or affirm) that I have not, in the said entry or invoice, concealed or suppressed any thing whereby the United States may be defrauded of any part of the duty lawfully due on the said goods, wares, and merchandise; and that if, at any time hereafter, I discover any error in the said invoice, or in the account now produced, of the said goods, wares, and merchandise, or receive any other invoice of the same, will immediately make the same known to the collector of this district. (a) (a) The defendant was indicted for perjury in falsely taking and swearing the "owner's oath in cases where goods have been actually purchased;" as prescribed by the fourth section of the supplementary collection law, of the first of March, 1823. The perjury was charged to have been committed in April, 1837, at the custom-house in New York, on the importation of certain woollen goods in the ship Sheridan. The indictment charged the defendant with having intentionally suppressed the true cost of the goods, with the intent to defraud the United States. 2. Charging the perjury in swearing to the truth of the invoice produced by him at the time of the entry of the goods, the invoice being false, &c. &c. It appeared by the evidence, that the goods mentioned in the entry had been bought by the defendant from John Wood, his father, of Saddleworth, England. No witness was produced by the United States to prove that the value or cost of the goods was greater than that for which they were entered at the custom-house in New York. The evidence of this, offered by the prosecution was, the invoice book of John Wood, and thirty-five original letters from the defendant to John Wood, between 1834 and 1837, showing a combination between John Wood and the defendant to defraud the United States, by invoicing and entering goods at less than their actual cost; that this combination comprehended the gooda imported in the Sheridan; and that the goods received by that ship had been entered by the defendant, Manufactur er's or owner's oath, where goods, &c. have not been purchased. Mode of estimating ad valorem duty; Manufacturer's or owner's oath, in cases where goods, wares, or merchandise, have not been actually purchased.* I do solemnly and truly (swear or affirm) that the entry now delivered by me to the collector of contains a just and true account of all the goods, wares, and merchandise, imported by, or consigned to, me, in the whereof is master, from ; that the said goods, wares, and merchandise, were not actually bought by me, or by my agent, in the ordinary mode of bargain and sale, but that, nevertheless, the invoice which I now produce, contains a just and faithful valuation of the same, at their fair market value, including charges of purchasing, carriages, bleaching, dyeing, dressing, finishing, putting up, and packing, at the time or times, and place or places, when and where procured for my account, (or for account of myself and partners ;) that the said invoice contains also a just and faithful account of all charges actually paid, and no other discount, drawback, or bounty, but such as has been actually allowed on the said goods, wares, and merchandise; that I do not know, nor believe in the existence, of any invoice or bill of lading, other than those now produced by me, and that they are in the state in which I actually received them. And I do further solemnly and truly (swear or affirm) that I have not, in the said entry or invoice, concealed or suppressed any thing whereby the United States may be defrauded of any part of the duty lawfully due on the said goods, wares, and merchandise, and that if, at any time hereafter, I discover any error in the said invoice, or in the account now produced, of the said goods, wares, and merchandise, or receive any other invoice of the same, I will immediately make the same known to the collector of this district. SEC. 5. And be it further enacted, That the ad valorem rates of duty upon goods, wares, and merchandise, shall be estimated in the manner following: to the actual cost, if the same shall have been actually purchased, or the actual value, if the same shall have been procured otherwise than by purchase, at the time and place, when and where purchased or otherwise procured, or to the appraised value, if appraised, except in cases where goods are subjected to the penalty provided for in the thirteenth section of this act, shall be added all charges, except insurance; and, also, twenty per centum on the said cost or value, and charges, if imported from the Cape of Good Hope, or any place beyond that, or from beyond Cape Horn, or ten per centum if from any other he knowing that they had cost more than the prices at which he had entered them. This evidence was objected to on the part of the defendant, as not competent proof to convict the defendant of the crime of perjury; and that if an inference of guilt could be derived from such proof, it was an inference from circumstances, not sufficient, as the best legal testimony, to warrant a conviction. Held, That in order to a conviction, it was not necessary, on the part of the prosecution, to produce a living witness; if the jury should believe, from the within testimony, that the defendant made a false and corrupt oath when he entered the goods. The United States v. Wood, 14 Peters, 430. The cases in which a living witness to a corpus delicti of the defendant, in a prosecution for perjury, may be dispensed with, are: all such where a person charged with a perjury by falsely swearing to a fact directly disproved by documentary or written testimony, springing from himself, with circumstances showing the corrupt intent: In cases where the perjury charged is contradicted by a public record, proved to have been well known to the defendant when he took the oath, the oath only proved to have been taken; in cases where the party is charged with taking an oath contrary to what he must necessarily have known to be the truth, and the false swearing can be proved by his own letters relating to the fact sworn to, or by other written testimony existing and being found in the possession of the defendant, and which has been treated by him as containing the evidence of the fact recited in it. Ibid. The letters of the defendant, showing his knowledge of the actual cost of the goods which had been falsely entered by him, are the best evidence which can be given. This evidence is good under the general principle that a man's own acts, conduct, and declarations, when voluntary, are always admissible in evidence against him. If the letters of the defendant showed that the invoice book of the vendor of the goods, containing an invoice of the goods enumerated in the invoice to which the defendant had sworn the owner's oath, in which book the goods were priced higher in the sale of them to the defendant, recognised the book as containing the true invoice, his admission supersedes the necessity of other proof to establish the real price given by him for the goods; and the letters and invoice book in connection preponderate against the oath taken by the defendant, making a living witness to the corpus delicti charged in the indictment, unnecessary. Ibid. See also Taylor et al. v. The United States, 3 Howard, 197. place or country; and the said rates of duty shall be estimated on such aggregate amount: Provided, That in all cases where any goods, wares, and merchandise, subject to ad valorem duty, shall have been imported from a country other than that in which the same were manufactured or produced, the appraisers shall value the same at the current value at the time of exportation, in the country where the same may have been originally manufactured or produced. SEC. 6. And be it further enacted, That no goods, wares, or merchandise, imported into the United States, subject to ad valorem duty, and belonging to a person or persons residing in the United States, but who shall, at the time, be absent from the place where the same are intended to be entered, shall be admitted to an entry, unless the importer, consignee or agent, shall previously give bond, the form of which shall be prescribed by the Secretary of the Treasury, with sufficient sureties, to produce, within four months, to the collector of the port where the said goods, wares, or merchandise, may be, the invoice of the same, duly verified, according to the circumstances of the case, by the oath of the said owner, or one of the owners, as prescribed in the fourth section of this act; which oath shall be administered by a collector of the United States, if there be any in the place where the said owner or owners may be; or if there be none, by some public officer duly authorized to administer oaths. SEC. 7. And be it further enacted, That no goods, wares, or merchandise, subject to ad valorem duty, imported as aforesaid, and belong ing to a person or persons not residing at the time in the United States, and who shall have actually purchased the same, shall be admitted to entry, unless the invoice be verified by the oath of the owner, or one of the owners, certifying that the said goods, wares, or merchandise, were actually purchased for his account, or for account of himself and partners in the said purchase: that the invoice annexed thereto contains a true and faithful account of the actual cost thereof, and of all charges thereon, and that no discounts, bounties, or drawbacks, are contained in the said invoice, but such as have been actually allowed on the same; which said oath shall be administered by a consul or commercial agent of the United States: or by some public officer duly authorized to administer oaths in the country where the said goods, wares, or merchandise, shall have been purchased, and the same duly certified by the said consul, commercial agent, or public officer; in which latter case, such official certificate shall be authenticated by a consul or commercial agent of the United States; Provided, That if there be no consul or commercial agent of the United States in the country from which the said goods, wares, or merchandise, shall have been imported, the authentication hereby required, shall be executed by a consul of a nation at the time in amity with the United States, if there be any such residing there; and if there be no such consul in the country, the said authentication shall be made by two respectable merchants, if any such there be, residing in the port from which the said goods, wares or merchandise, shall have been imported. SEC. 8. And be it further enacted, That no goods, wares, or merchandise, subject to ad valorem duty, imported as aforesaid, and belonging to a person or persons not residing at the time in the United States, who may not have acquired the same in the ordinary mode of bargain and sale, or belonging to a person or persons who may be the manufacturer or manufacturers, in whole or in part, of the same, shall be admitted to entry, unless the invoice thereof be verified by the oath of the owner, or of one of the owners, certifying that the invoice contains a true and faithful account of the said goods, wares, or merchandise, at their fair market value at the time and place when and where the same were procured or manufactured, as the case may be, and of all charges thereon; Proviso. Goods, &c., subject to ad valorem duty, belonging to citizens absent at the time, to be admitted to entry, upon bond of the importer, &c., to produce the invoice. Goods, &c. not to be ad mitted to entry unless the invoice be verified by owner's oath. Oath to be administered by a consul or commercial agent. Proviso. No goods, &c., subject to ad valorem duty to be admitted to entry, unless the invoice be verified by the owner's oath. |