Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 2).djvu/424

 *sion of its rights, with respect to such an intercourse."

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, and the vessel in which the same is imported, are forfeited to the United States." It was further determined that "the