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California, it is now extended to 21,354; and with the northern lakes, hardly known then as media of commerce, to 24,974; and taking into account also the extent of shore lines of rivers and bays in the territories since added to the Union, upon which now an active commerce is carried, the comparative condition of the country then and now will be clearly seen.

Since our earliest existing revenue laws were enacted an immense foreign and interior commerce on the Mississippi, its tributaries, and the lakes, has been developed with a wonderful rapidity-a thing not only not existing in fact when our present revenue system was established, but not existing even as a conception or anticipation in the mind of any man then living. In 1800-one year after the general collection law now in force was passed, and seven years after the date of our present coasting law, the only crafts upon our great lakes were boats and Indian canoes, and the only trade barter in the rudest form. Now that commerce may be represented as near $350,000,000 per annum in value, and the tonnage at 225,000 tons. The acquisition of Louisiana, Florida, Texas, and California, opening up a vast trade through the great valley of the Mississippi and its tributaries, on the Mexican Gulf and on the Pacific coast of the United States, extended and quickened by the rapid settlement of the country and the development of the various resources, has brought within the control of the federal government a commerce, for the proper regulation of which our earlier laws, though framed with admirable skill and foresight, are, in their present form, entirely inadequate.

Such a revision of those laws is therefore required as will bring together, in a compact, simple, and intelligible form, such of the provisions of the existing systems as are applicable to, and such additions as are demanded by the interests of so extensive and diversified a

commerce.

Several successive revisions and consolidations of the British revenue and collection laws have been made under the authority of that gov ernment, to meet changes that have taken place in the navigating and commercial interests of the realm. This recission of obsolete statutes and adoption of new regulations, presenting the law in a compact, plain, and intelligible form, has been deemed but a just concession to the honest ship-owning, navigating, and commercial classes, who always suffer by the uncertainty and complexity of the laws, as well as a proper protection to the government itself against the attempts of the dishonest, who take advantage of such a system, with a fair prospect of impunity, to practise their frauds on the public revenue. Great Britain has thus recognized the necessity of reforming and simplifying her revenue code, although the board of trade and customs, who are charged with the administration and superintendence of her revenue and collection laws, were vested with a very large discretion, and to a considerable extent could, without new enactments, have adapted their regulations to the new and various exigencies of the commerce and navigation of the kingdom. But with us, where as little discretion as possible is to be left to the executive, and whatever is to be regulated by government should be the subject of precise and

specific legal provision, the necessity of revising, amending, and simplifying, our revenue code, would seem to be an imperative duty.

Impressed with this necessity, the Secretary of the Treasury, in his annual report of December, 1851, recommended the subject to Congress, and the Senate adopted a resolution on the 19th of January, 1853, devolving the duty on the Treasury Department. In accordance with that resolution, a report, forming Executive Document No. 77, of 33d Congress, 1st session, was made by that department, presenting a revision of the revenue laws, which will be found briefly explained in the accompanying statement marked B.

B.

Statement explanatory of the proposed revised code.

The revised code of revenue and collection laws, prepared in the Treasury Department under the resolution of the Senate of the 19th January, 1853, consists of fifteen chapters, the general contents of which are as follows, to wit:

Chapter 1. "Establishing the collection districts of the United States, and designating the port of entry and ports of delivery in the same."

This chapter arranges the entire territory of the United States into one hundred and six collection districts, following the existing arrangement of districts as to limits, wherever practicable, keeping in view, however, in all cases, the convenience of trade and the security of the

revenue.

Much conflict and doubt exist under present laws as to the extent and limits of several districts. This chapter prescribes fixed metes and bounds, and is moreover accompanied by a map on which the several districts are exhibited. In each of these districts there is one port of entry and one or more ports of delivery, according to the existing course and interests of commerce and trade, and the facilities of collecting and securing the public revenue.

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A general provision is now proposed to invest by law the Secretary of the Treasury with the power, with the approbation of the President, to dispense with any ports of entry when in their judgment they shall become unnecessary as ports of entry, and attach them, as ports of delivery, to other districts; to establish new ports of delivery in any the districts, and to establish in any territory acquired or in possession of the United States new ports of entry and delivery, and designate the boundaries of the collection districts thus established, and to decide finally any dispute as to the actual boundary line of any district established by the act. The revenue and penal laws of the United States are to extend at once over the districts so established.

The second chapter relates "to the appointment of officers for the collection of the customs, and to provide for their compensation."

This chapter continues the several descriptions of revenue officers as established by existing laws, viz: collectors, naval officers, surveyors, appraisers, weighers, measurers, gaugers, and inspectors, designating,

however, chief revenue officer at ports of delivery where duties are paid as collector, and at other ports of delivery as deputy collector. Those officers are now known as surveyors.

The collection districts are arranged (with the exceptions hereafter stated) into eight classes, according to the amount of revenue collected in each; and the description of officers employed and the compensation allowed are, as a general thing, predicated upon this fact. The amount of revenue collected was assumed as the best general criterion of the actual amount of business, labor, and responsibility involved, and to meet exceptions (as in the merely or mainly preventive service) additional compensation is allowed.

The collection district of New York and the collection districts in Texas, California, and Washington and Oregon Territories, are organized separately. In consideration of the very large amount of revenue collected at New York, and the peculiar condition of the other districts referred to, they could not be properly brought within the proposed classification.

The remaining districts and ports of delivery are arranged into eight classes

First class. Where the revenue collected shall exceed one million of dollars per annum.

Second class. Where the amount collected is five hundred thousand dollars and not exceeding one million.

Third class. Where the amount collected is one hundred thosand dollars and not exceeding five hundred thousand.

Fourth class. Where the amount collected is fifty thousand and not exceeding one hundred thousand dollars of revenue.

Fifth class. Where the amount collected is twenty thousand and not exceeding fifty thousand dollars.

Sixth class. Where the amount collected is ten thousand and not exceeding twenty thousand dollars.

Seventh class. Where the amount collected is one thousand and not exceeding ten thousand dollars; and the

Eighth class. Where the amount collected is less than one thousand dollars annually.

It is made the duty of the Secretary, with the approval of the Presi dent, to transfer, annually, districts from one class to another according to the revenue collected, to designate the class to which new districts and ports of delivery shall be assigned until their proper classes shall be ascertained from the revenue collected, and to annex any of the districts, not included in any of the classes, to its proper class. For each of the districts, classified or unclassified, this chapter provides for the appointment by the President and Senate, for the term of four years of a collector, naval officer, surveyor and appraiser, or for one or more of them, as the business of the port may require, as is the case under the present law; and the Secretary of the Treasury is also authorized to abolish, with the approval of the President, any one or more of said offices, and require the duties to be performed by the remaining officer or officers at said port. It also provides for the discharge of the duties of the several collectors, naval officers, surveyors, and appraisers, during the vacancies occasioned by lapse of time, resignation, or re

moval, requiring the incumbent, unless otherwise directed by the Secretary of the Treasury, to continue to discharge the duties until a successor takes charge, and continuing the liability of the officer and his sureties, to embrace such additional service; or the Secretary may depute another person, under proper bonds, to discharge the duties during such interval.

In case of vacancy by death, the deputy of the collector, naval officer, surveyor, or appraiser, or chief clerk, (as the case may be,) may discharge the duties of the office of his deceased principal, until appointment of successor, or designation by the Secretary of some other person to act, the estate of the deceased and sureties on his bond to be liable for due discharge of duties and revenue collected in the interval. The Secretary of the Treasury has also the power to appoint, in the several departments of the customs, on the nomination, respectively, of collector, naval officer, surveyor and appraiser, deputies to collectors, naval officers, surveyors and appraisers, inspectors, assistant appraisers, examiners, weighers, measurers and gaugers; the Secretary of the Treasury to have the power of limiting the number and compensation of such subordinate officers, but not to increase their compensation beyond the amount limited by law.

Collectors, naval officers, surveyors and appraisers are authorized to employ in their respective districts, with the approbation of the secretary, as many clerks, night inspectors, laborers, messengers, watchmen, and other persons in aid of the revenue as shall be found necessary; the secretary to limit the number and fix the compensation of persons. so employed; but no clerk to receive a greater compensation than five dollars per diem.

In all the districts to which naval officers are not assigned, the secretary is authorized to appoint a clerk to keep the accounts and act as auditor in the settlement thereof, thus providing at such ports, when deemed expedient, a check corresponding in an important respect with that of the naval officer at the principal ports.

The President, with the consent of the Senate, is also authorized to appoint six appraisers at large, being one more than the Board, as now constituted; one being designed for the ports on the Pacific, and the residue for ports on the Atlantic coast of the United States.

The collectors, naval officers, surveyors and appraisers are required to give adequate bonds for the faithful discharge of the duties of their respective offices, and the Secretary of the Treasury, with the approval of the President, is authorized to regulate and increase the amount of their bonds, from time to time, whenever the interests of the United States are deemed to require it.

The compensation of collectors for the unclassified districts and for the first and second of the classified, is by fixed salaries, ranging from $10,000 per annum, as in San Francisco, to $4,000, as in Charleston, and in the residue of the districts they are paid by salaries ranging from $1,500 per annum, and half of one per cent. commission on the amount of collections, as in the third class, to eight per cent. commission, as in the eighth class.

In the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh classes, collectors are allowed additional pay for services actually rendered, in the form of prescribed

fees, to be paid out of the public treasury; and the secretary is authorized, with the approbation of the President, to grant additional compensation to collectors in districts seven and eight, reporting such changes in salaries, classifications, districts, changes of districts, or new ports established, annually, to Congress.

The naval officers, surveyors and appraisers are all compensated by fixed salaries proportioned to the salaries of the collectors at their respective ports, and the general appraisers are also paid fixed salaries, and salaries or per diem compensations are also assigned to all the other permanent officers connected with the customs.

The present mode of compensation is by salaries, commissions, and fees, and being fixed by law, and the amount of collections and other business, on which, especially, the two latter elements depend, being fluctuating, there is a want of just proportion maintained between the compensation and the service, to say nothing of the door open to fraud and oppression by exaction of illegal fees, without the knowledge of the department, and therefore beyond its control.

The proposed system, dispensing with fees, granting fixed salaries, or salaries and commissions to the collectors of the districts arranged in classes, proportioned to the amount of revenue collected, and providing for transfer of districts from class to class, with the increase or diminution of revenue, combines, with an adequate scale of compensation, a principle of self-adjustment by which, without any additional legislation or exercise of executive discretion, it is designed and hoped that the pay will always be kept in due proportion to the service and responsibility.

Chapter 3. "Concerning the registry of vessels, and regulating the coasting trade."

In this chapter are brought together the several provisions of the existing laws regulating the issuing of registers, emoluments, and licenses, and the coasting trade, with such additions and modifications as to adapt the law to the present condition of navigation and com

merce.

By the present law registers are granted for the foreign trade, and emoluments and licenses, or licenses alone, according to tonnage, for the coastwise trade. It is proposed to dispense with emoluments and licenses, and issue instead a register for the coastwise trade, as well as the foreign trade; the coasting register to be renewed annually, and a register also to vessels engaged in the various fisheries. This will, it is believed, be more simple than the present arrangement, and will distinguish quite as well the tonnage of the United States engaged in the various branches of commerce.

As to the vessels which may be documented as vessels of the United States no change in the present law is proposed, except that vessels, wherever built, wrecked, and properly condemned as unseaworthy, purchased by a citizen of, and repaired in the United States, at a cost equal to two-thirds the value when repaired, and wholly owned and commanded by American citizens, may be registered, as also vessels of the United States sold to foreigners and afterwards repurchased in the United States, and wholly owned and commanded by citizens of the United States not having been engaged in any unlawful trade, on

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