Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 2).djvu/425

 coasting trade is only allowed in vessels of the United States; and that "merchandise imported from one port into another port in the United States, in a vessel belonging wholly or in part to a subject of any foreign power, unless such merchandise shall have been imported in such vessel from a foreign port, and that the same shall not have been unladen, is forfeited to the United States."

In 1818 Congress made their navigation laws still more stringent by enacting, "That from and after the 30th of September next, the ports of the United States shall be and remain closed against every vessel owned, wholly or in part, by a subject or subjects of his Britannic Majesty, coming or arriving from any port or place in a colony or territory of his Britannic Majesty, that is or shall be, by the ordinary laws of navigation and trade, closed against vessels owned by citizens of the United States; and such vessel, that in the course of the voyage shall have touched at, or cleared out from, any port or place in a colony or territory of Great Britain, which shall or may be, by the ordinary laws of navigation and trade aforesaid, open to vessels owned by citizens of the United States, shall nevertheless be deemed to have come from the port or place in the colony or territory of Great Britain, closed as aforesaid against vessels owned by citizens of the United States, from which such vessel cleared out and sailed before touching at and clearing out from an intermediate and open port or place as aforesaid; and every such vessel, so excluded from the ports of the United States, that shall