Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 1.djvu/764

   affirmation, diligently and faithfully to execute the duties of their said offices respectively, which oath or affirmation shall be of the form and tenor following, to wit:

I (A. B.) having been appointed (collector or other officer as the case may be) of the (district or port of) do solemnly, sincerely and truly (swear or affirm) that I will diligently and faithfully execute the duties of the said office of and will use the best of my endeavours to prevent and detect frauds in relation to the duties imposed by the laws of the United States; I further (swear or affirm) that I will support the constitution of the United States.

(Sworn or affirmed) and subscribed, this day of  before me,

And the oath or affirmation aforesaid, if taken by a collector, may be taken before any magistrate authorized to administer oaths within the district to which he belongs; but if taken by another officer, shall be taken before the collector of his district; and being certified under the hand and seal of the person by whom the same shall have been administered, shall within three months thereafter be transmitted to the comptroller of the treasury, in default of taking of which oath, or transmitting a certificate thereof, the party failing shall forfeit and pay two hundred dollars, to be recovered with cost of suit in any court of competent jurisdiction, to the use of the United States.

. And be it further enacted, That the several officers of the customs shall respectively perform the duties following, to wit: At such of the ports to which there shall be appointed a collector, naval officer and surveyor, the collector shall receive all reports, manifests and documents to be made or exhibited on the entry of any ship or vessel, according to the regulations of this act; shall record, in books to be kept for that purpose, all manifests; shall receive the entries of all ships or vessels and of the goods, wares and merchandise imported in them; shall, together with the naval officer where there is one, or alone where there is none, estimate the amount of the duties payable thereupon, endorsing the said amount upon the respective entries; shall receive all monies paid for duties, and take all bonds for securing the payment thereof; shall grant all permits for the unlading and delivery of goods; shall, with the approbation of the principal officer of the treasury department, employ proper persons as weighers, gaugers, measurers and inspectors, at the several ports within his district; and also, with the like approbation, provide, at the public expense, storehouses for the safe keeping of goods, and such scales, weights and measures, as may be necessary; the naval officer shall receive copies of all manifests and entries, and shall, together with the collector, estimate the duties on all goods, wares and merchandise subject to duty (and no duties shall be received without such estimate), and shall keep a separate record thereof, and shall countersign all permits, clearances, certificates, debentures, and other documents, to be granted by the collector; he shall also examine the collector’s abstracts of duties, and other accounts of receipts, bonds and expenditures, and if found right, he shall certify the same.

The surveyor shall superintend and direct all inspectors, weighers, measurers and gaugers, within his port, and shall once every week report to the collector, the name or names of such inspectors, weighers, gaugers or measurers, as may be absent from or neglect to do their duty, shall visit or inspect the ships or vessels which arrive therein, and shall make a return in writing every morning to the collector, if any, at the port where he resides, of all vessels which shall have arrived from foreign ports or places the preceding day, specifying the names and denominations of the vessels, the masters’ names, from whence arrived, whether laden or in ballast, whether belonging to the United States, or to what other nation belonging, and if American vessels, whether the masters