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respective duties and powers, shall, from time to time, prescribe additions to the said forms, for the purpose of adapting them to any alteration which may be made to the rates of duties on the importation of goods, and on the tonnage of vessels, and for the better collection and payment of the said duties. But such officers shall not prescribe any form or regulations incompatible with, or contravening, the special provisions of law.(1)

2096. Any person who shall counterfeit any certificate or attestation made in pursuance of the act of 1st March, 1823, or use such certificate or attestation, knowing the same to be counterfeit, shall, upon conviction thereof, before any court of the United States, having cognizance thereof, be adjudged guilty of felony, and be fined in a sum not exceeding ten thousand dollars, and imprisoned for a term not exceeding three years.(2)

2097. Any person guilty of any crime under the revenue laws of the United States, or incurring any fine or forfeiture by breach of the said laws, may be prosecuted, tried, and punished, provided the indictment or information be found at any time within five years after committing the offence, or incurring the fine or forfeiture, any law or provision to the contrary notwithstanding.(3)*

2098. Whenever any person who shall have incurred any fine, penalty, forfeiture, or disability, or shall have been interested in any vessel or goods, which shall have been subject to any seizure, forfeiture, or disability, by force of any present or future law of the United States, for the laying, levying, or collecting, any duties or taxes, or by force of any present or future act, concerning the registering and recording of vessels, or any act concerning the enrolling and licensing vessels employed in the coasting trade or fisheries, and for regulating the same, shall prefer his petition to the judge of the district, in which such fine, penalty, forfeiture, or disability, shall have accrued, truly and particularly setting forth the circumstances of his case, 1 and shall pray that the same may be mitigated or remitted, the said judge shall inquire, in a summary manner, into the circumstances of the case; first causing reasonable notice to be given to the person or persons claiming such fine, penalty, or forfeiture, and to the attorney of the United States for such district, that each may have an opportunity of showing cause against the mitigation or remission thereof; and shall cause the facts, which shall appear upon such inquiry, to be stated and annexed to the petition, and direct their transmission to the secretary of the treasury of the United States, who shall thereupon have power to mitigate or remit such fine, forfeiture, or penalty, or remove such disability, or any part thereof, if, in his opinion, the same shall have been incurred without wilful negligence, or any intention of fraud, in the person or persons incurring the same; and to direct the prosecution, if any shall have been instituted for the recovery thereof, to cease and be discontinued, upon such terms or conditions as he may deem reasonable and just.(4)

2099. Nothing contained in the last article shall be construed to affect the right of claim of any person, to that part of any fine, penalty, or forfeiture, incurred by the breach of any of the laws aforesaid, which such person shall or may be entitled to by virtue of the said laws, in cases where a prosecution has been commenced, or information has been given, before

(1) Act 2d March, 1799, sec. 111.
(2) Act 1st March, 1823, sec. 24.

(3) Act 26th March, 1804.
(4) Act 3d March, 1797, sec. 1.

* By act 2d March, 1799, sec. 89, it is provided, that no action or prosecution shall be maintained in any case under this act, unless the same shall have been commenced within three years after the penalty or forfeiture was incurred.

the passing of this act, or any other act relative to the mitigation or remis. sion of such fines, penalties, or forfeitures; the amount of which right and claim shall be assessed and valued by the proper judge, or court, in a summary manner.(1)

2100. The judicial courts of the several states to whom by any of the said acts a jurisdiction is given, may exercise every power in the cases cog. nizable before them, for the purpose of obtaining a mitigation or remission of any fine, penalty, or forfeiture, which may be exercised by the judges of the district courts in cases depending before them.(2)

2101. The power vested in the secretary of the treasury, to remove disabilities incurred under the act concerning registering and recording of ships and vessels of the United States, and under the act enrolling and licensing ships or vessels to be employed in the coasting trade and fisheries, and for regulating the same, shall extend to the remission of any foreign duties, which have been or shall be incurred by reason of such disabilities.(3)

2102. But in all suits or prosecutions instituted by or on behalf of the United States, in any state or county court, the process, proceedings, judg ment, and execution therein shall be not delayed, suspended, or in any way barred or defeated, by reason of any law of any state authorizing or directing a stay or suspension of process, proceedings, judgment, or execution.(4)*

2103. In all cases of fine, penalty, or forfeiture, mentioned and embraced in the act, entitled, "An act to provide for mitigating or remitting the for

(1) Act 3d March, 1797, sec. 3. (2) Ibid. sec. 2.-Act 8th March, 1806.

(3) Act 2d March, 1803, sec. 4.
(4) Act 3d March, 1815, sec. 2.

* Under the Act of March 3d, 1797, the secretary of the treasury has power to remit a forfeiture at any time, before or after condemnation, until the money is actually paid over to the collector for distribution.-United States v. Morris, 10 Wheat. 246, 1 Paine, 209, S. C.

Such remission extends to the shares of the penalty or forfeiture to which the officers of the customs are entitled, as well as to the interest of the United States. Until final judgment, no part of the forfeiture rests absolutely in the collector; but after final judgment his share rests absolutely, and cannot be remitted by the secretary of the treasury.-The Margaretta, 2 Gallis, 515. The Hollen, 1 Mason, 431. But see the case of the United States v. Morris, in this note, which is contra. If pending the proceedings a remission be made of the whole property forfeited, his whole title is gone, if of a part only, his title attaches to the remainder, and by a judgment of condemnation becomes fixed and indissoluble.-Ibid. 2 Gallis, 515. The court in considering a question of forfeiture, disregards a refusal of the secretary of the treasury to remit the penalty.-The cotton planter, 1 Paine, 23.

A forfeiture under the act of congress of March 2d, 1807, chap. 77, prohibiting the importation of negroes, may be remitted by the district court, in which it is sought to be enforced, in cases of extreme hardship.-United States v. The Kitty, Bee, 252.

The secretary of the treasury has no power to remit penalties unless in cases provided for by law.—The Margaretta, 2 Gallis, 515.

If he recite his authority under a special act, and remit in pursuance thereof, the remission, if unsupported by that act, cannot be supported under the general act of March 3d, 1797.-Ibid.

Under that act the district judge is bound upon a petition for remission, to state the facts, and not merely the evidence of the facts; and the secretary of the treasury is bound by this statement of facts, and cannot legally act on any other evidence.-Ibid.

The district judge, in stating such facts, acts judicially, and the proof before him must be made by competent, as well as credible testimony.-Ibid.

A statement by the district judge, that the claimant, only, swore to the facts before him, is no legal proof under the act of 1797, upon which the secretary of the treasury is bound to remit.-Ibid.

feitures, penalties, and disabilities, accruing in certain cases therein mentioned," or in any act in addition to, or amendatory of said act, and not exceeding fifty dollars in amount, or value, the secretary of the treasury is authorized, if in his opinion the said fine, penalty, or forfeiture was incurred without wilful negligence or intention of fraud, to prescribe such rules and mode of proceeding, to ascertain the facts, as in his opinion may be convenient and proper, without regard to the provisions of the act above referred to; and upon the said facts, so to be ascertained as aforesaid, the said secretary may exercise all the power conferred upon him in and by said act, as fully as he might have done had said facts been ascertained under and according to the provisions of said act.(1)-See art. 2098, &c.

(1) Act 14th July, 1832.

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ART. 2104. A mint for the purpose of a national coinage, shall be es tablished, to be situated and carried on at Philadelphia, for the time being.(1)

2105. The officers of the mint of the United States shall be a director, a treasurer, an assayer, a melter and refiner, a chief coiner and engraver, to be appointed by the president of the United States, by and with the advice and consent of the senate.(2)

(1) Acts 1792, 1795, 1823, 1828.

(2) Act 18th January, 1837, sec. 1.

2106. The respective duties of the officers of the mint shall be as follows:

First. The director shall have the control and management of the mint, the superintendence of the officers and persons employed therein, and the general regulation and supervision of the business of the several branches. And in the month of January of every year he shall make a report to the president of the United States of the operations of the mint and its branches for the year preceding. And also to the secretary of the treasury, from time to time, as said secretary shall require, setting forth all the operations of the mint subsequent to the last report made upon the subject.

Second. The treasurer shall receive, and safely keep all moneys which shall be for the use and support of the mint; shall keep all the current accounts of the mint, and pay all moneys due by the mint, on warrants from the director. He shall receive all bullion brought to the mint for coinage; shall be the keeper of all bullion and coin in the mint, except while the same is legally placed in the hands of other officers, and shall, on warrants from the director, deliver all coins, struck at the mint, to the persons to whom they shall be legally payable. And he shall keep regular and faithful, accounts of all the transactions of the mint, in bullion and coins, both with the officers of the mint and the depositors; and shall present, quarter yearly, to the treasury department of the United States, according to such forms as shall be prescribed by that department, an account of the receipts and disbursements of the mint, for the purpose of being adjusted and settled.

Third. The assayer shall carefully assay all metals used in coinage, whenever such assays are required in the operations of the mint; and he shall also make assays of coins whenever instructed to do so by the di

rector.

Fourth. The melter and refiner shall execute all the operations which are necessary in order to form ingots of standard silver or gold, suitable for the chief coiner, from the metals legally delivered to him for that purpose.

Fifth. The chief coiner shall execute all the operations which are necessary in order to form coins, conformable in all respects to the law, from the standard silver and gold ingots, and the copper planchets, legally delivered to him for this purpose.

Sixth. The engraver shall prepare and engrave, with the legal devices and inscriptions, all the dies used in the coinage of the mint and its branches.(1)

2107. The director shall appoint, with the approbation of the president, assistants to the assayer, melter and refiner, chief coiner, and engraver and clerks for the director and treasurer, whenever, on representation made by the director to the president, it shall be the opinion of the president that such assistants or clerks are necessary. And it shall be the duty of the assistants to aid their principals in the execution of their respective offices, and of the clerks to perform such duties as shall be prescribed for them by the director.(2)

2108. Whenever any officer of the mint shall be temporarily ab sent on account of sickness, or any other sufficient cause, it shall be lawful for the director, with the assent of said officer, to appoint some person attached to the mint to act in the place of such officer during his absence, and the director shall employ such workmen and servants in the mint as he shall from time to time find necessary.(3)

2109. Every officer, assistant, and clerk of the mint, shall, before

(1) Act 18th Jan. 1837, sec. 2.

(2) Ibid. sec. 3.

(3) Ibid. sec. 4.

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