AN ACT

To extend the warehousing system by establishing private bonded warehouses, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That from and after the passage of this act, any goods, wares or merchandise subject to duty, with the exception of perishable articles, also gunpowder, fire crackers and other explosive substances, which shall have been duly entered and bonded for warehousing, in conformity with existing laws, may be deposited at the option of the owner, importer, consignee or agent, at his expense and risk, in any public warehouse owned or leased by the United States, or in the private warehouse of the importer, the same being used exclusively for the storage of warehoused goods of his own importation or to his consignment, or in a private warehouse used by the owner, occupant, or lessee, as a general warehouse for the storage of warehoused goods, such place of storage to be designated on the warehouse entry at the time of entering such merchandise at the custom-house: Provided, That such private warehouse shall be used solely for the purpose of storing warehoused goods, and shall have been previously approved by the Secretary of the Treasury, and have been placed in charge of a proper officer of the customs, who, together with the owner and proprietor of the warehouse shall have the joint custody of all the merchandise stored in said warehouse, and all the labor on the goods so stored must be performed by the owner or proprietor of the warehouse under the supervision of the officer of the customs in charge of the same, at the expense of the aforesaid owner or proprietor: And provided further, That cellars and vaults of stores for the storage of wines and distilled spirits only, and yards for the storage of coal, mahogany, and other woods and lumber may, at the discretion of the Secretary of the Treasury, be constituted bonded warehouses for the storage of such articles under the same regulations and conditions as required in the storage of other merchandise; the cellars or vaults aforesaid shall be exclusively appropriated to the storage of wines or distilled spirits, and shall have no opening or entrance except the one from the street, on which separate and different locks of the customhouse and the owner or proprietor of the cellars or vaults shall be placed.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That unclaimed goods, wares, or merchandise required by existing laws to be taken possession of by collectors of the customs, may be stored in any public warehouse owned or leased by the United States, or in any private bonded warehouse authorized by this act, and all charges for storage, labor, and other expenses accruing on any such goods, wares or merchandise, not to exceed in any case the regular

rates for such objects at the port in question, must be paid before delivery of the goods on due entry thereof by the claimant or owner; or if sold as unclaimed goods to realize the import duties, the aforesaid charges shall be paid by the collector out of the proceeds of the sale thereof before paying such proceeds into the Treasury as required by existing laws. And any collector of the customs is hereby authorized, under such directions and regulations as may be prescribed by the Secretary of the Treasury, to sell, upon due notice, at public auction, any unclaimed goods, wares or merchandise deposited in public warehouse whenever the same may from depreciation in value, damage, leakage or other cause, in the opinion of such collector, be likely to prove insufficient on a sale thereof to pay the duties, storage and other charges if suffered to remain in public store for the period now allowed by law in the case of unclaimed goods.

SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That before any of the stores or cellars aforesaid, owned or occupied by private individuals, shall be used as a warehouse for merchandise imported by other merchants or importers, the owner, occupant or lessee thereof shall enter into bond, in such sums and with such sureties as may be approved by the Secretary of the Treasury, exonerating and holding the United States and its officers harmless from or on account of any risk, loss or expense of any kind or description, connected with or arising from the deposite or keeping of the merchandise in the warehouse aforesaid; and all imports deposited in any public or private warehouse authorized by this act, shall be at the sole and exclusive risk and expense of the owner or importer.

SEC. 4.-And be it further enacted, That all goods, wares and merchandise which may be hereafter duly entered for warehousing under bond, and likewise all merchandise now remaining in warehouse under bond, may continue in warehouse, without payment of duties thereupon, for a period of three years from the date of original importation, and may be withdrawn for consumption on due entry and payment of the duties and charges, or upon entry for exportation, without the payment of duties, at any time within the period aforesaid; in the latter case, the goods to be subject only to the payment of such storage and charges as may be due thereon: Provided, however, That where the duties shall have been paid upon any goods, wares, or merchandise entered for consumption, said duties shall not be refunded on exportation of any such goods, wares, or merchandise, without the limits of the United States: And provided further, That there shall be no abatement of the duties or allowance made for any injury, damage, deterioration, loss, or leakage sustained by any goods, wares, or merchandise, whilst deposited in any public or private bonded warehouse established or recognized by this act.

SEC. 5. And be it further enacted, That any goods, wares, or merchandise, duly entered for warehousing, may be withdrawn under bond, without payment of the duties, from a bonded warehouse in any collection district of the United States, and be transported to a bonded warehouse in any other collection district within the same, and re-warehoused thereat; and any such

goods, wares, or merchandise, may be so transported to their destination wholly by land, or wholly by water, or partly by land and partly by water, over such routes as the Secretary of the Treasury may prescribe, and may likewise be conveyed over any foreign territory, the government of which may have, or shall by treaty stipulations grant, a free right of way over such territory; and for the purpose of better guarding against frauds upon the revenue on foreign goods transported between the ports of the Atlantic and those of the Pacific overland through any foreign territory, the Secretary of the Treasury be, and is hereby authorized to appoint special sworn agents as inspectors of the customs, to reside in said foreign territory where such goods may be landed or embarked, with power to superintend the landing or shipping of all goods passing coastwise between the ports of the United States on the Pacific and Atlantic, and whose duty it shall be, under such regulations and instructions as the Secretary of the Treasury may prescribe, to guard against the perpetration of any frauds upon the revenue: Provided, That the compensation paid to said inspector shall not in the aggregate exceed five thousand dollars per annum.

SEC. 6.—And be it further enacted, That the Secretary of the Treasury shall prescribe the form of the bond to be given for the transportation of goods, wares, and merchandise, from a port in one collection district to a port in another collection district in the United States, as provided in the preceding section; also the time for such delivery; and for a failure to transport and deliver, within the time limited, any such bonded goods, wares, and merchandise, to the collector at the designated port, an additional duty of one hundred per cent. shall be levied and collected, which additional duty shall be secured by such bond, or said goods, wares, and merchandise may be seized and forfeited for such failure, and any steam or other vessel, or vehicle, transporting such bonded goods, wares, and merchandise, the master, owner, or conductor of which shall fail to deliver the same to the collector at the designated port, shall be liable to seizure and forfeiture.

SEC. 7.—And be it further enacted, That all leases of stores now held by the United States for the purpose of storing warehoused or unclaimed goods shall, on the shortest period of termination named in said leases, be cancelled, and no leases shall be entered into by the United States for any stores for the storage of warehoused or unclaimed goods at any port where there may exist any private bonded warehouses, after the first day of July, eighteen hundred and fifty-five: Provided, That nothing herein contained shall be construed to prevent the leasing or hiring of such buildings or accommodation, as may be required for the use of the United States' appraisers for the due examination and appraisal of imported merchandise at the ports where such officers are provided by law, nor to prohibit the leasing or hireing by collectors of the customs, for short periods, with the approval of the Secretary of the Treasury, of such stores as may be required for custom-house purposes at any of the smaller revenue ports of the United States: Provided, That no collector or other officer of the customs shall enter into any contract or agreement for the use of any building to be thereafter erected as a public store or

warehouse, and no lease of any building to be so used shall be taken for a longer period than three years, nor shall rent be paid, in whole or in part, in any case, in advance.

SEC. 8.-And be it further enacted, That the Secretary of the Treasury be, and he is hereby, authorized, upon production of satisfactory proof to him of the actual injury or destruction in whole or in part of any goods, wares, or merchandise; by accidental fire, or other casualty, while the same remained in the custody of the officers of the customs in any public or private warehouse under bond, or in the appraisers' stores undergoing appraisal, in pursuance of law or regulations of the Treasury Department, or while in transportation under bond from the port of entry to any other port in the United States, to abate or refund, as the case may be, out of any moneys in the treasury not otherwise appropriated, the amount of impost duties paid or accruing thereupon; and likewise to cancel any warehouse bond or bonds, or enter satisfaction thereon in whole or in part, as the case may be. ·

SEC. 9.—And be it further enacted, That the Secretary of the Treasury be, and is hereby, authorized from time to time to establish such rules and regulations, not inconsistent with the laws of the United States, for the due execution of this act, as he may deem to be expedient and necessary; and all acts and parts of acts conflicting with this are hereby repealed. Approved, March 28, 1854.

TO COLLECTORS AND OTHER OFFICERS OF THE CUSTOMS. TREASURY DEPARTMENT, March 30, 1854.

The annexed copy of an act of Congress, entitled "An act to extend the warehousing system by establishing private bonded warehouses, and for other purposes," approved the 28th instant, is herewith transmitted for the information and government of collectors and other officers of the customs.

These

There are several important provisions of this act which require a modification of the warehousing regulations of the 17th February, 1849. regulations, however, in other respects will continue in force until modified or revoked by further instructions.

It will be perceived that by the provisions of the 4th section of this act, imported merchandise duly entered after its date for warehousing under bond may continue in warehouse without payment of duties thereupon for a period of three years from the date of original importation. It may be withdrawn at any time, within that period, either for consumption on due entry therefor and payment of duties and charges, or for exportation without the payment of duties. When withdrawn for exportation, however, the storage and charges due on the merchandise so withdrawn must be paid.

When duties shall have been paid on merchandise entered for consumption, they cannot be refunded on the exportation of the merchandise without the limits of the United States; nor can any abatement of duties be granted

or allowance made, for or on account of any injury, damage, deterioration, loss, or leakage sustained by merchandise while in deposite in any public or private bonded warehouse established or recognised by the act.

In pursuance of the provisions of the same section, the bond given on the entry of the merchandise for warehousing will be according to the annexed form A.

The extension of the warehousing period to three years, it will be perceived, is made applicable to merchandise bonded before the passage of the act and still remaining in warehouse. Any goods, wares, and merchandise, therefore, which may be in warehouse under bond on the receipt of these instrnctions will be permitted to remain therein for the period of three years from the date of original importation, and may, at any time within that period, be withdrawn for consumption on payment of duties and charges, or for exportation on payment of such storage and charges as may be due thereon.

It must be distinctly understood, however, that when any bond given before the passage of this law for any merchandise still remaining in warehouse reaches maturity, the owner or importer, if he desires to avail himself of the warehousing period as now extended, must give a new and satisfactory bond according to form A, when the former bond will be cancelled.

The particular attention of collectors and other officers of the customs is called to the very important provisions of the 5th and 6th sections of the act, which regulates the transportation of merchandise in bond.

The following routes for the transportation of merchandise in bond from one port of entry to another port of entry or delivery, have been authorised by the Secretary of the Treasury, to wit:

From the ports of Boston, New-York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, to Pittsburg, Wheeling, Cincinnati, Louisville, St. Louis, Nashville, Natchez, Evansville, New Albany, Burlington, Vt., Sackett's Harbor, Rochester, Oswego, Lewiston, Buffalo, Ogdensburg, Plattsburg, Cape Vincent, Erie, Toledo, Sandusky, Cleveland, Detroit, Michilimackinac, Chicago, and Milwaukie, by canal, railroad, river, or lake, wholly or in part, as the party may select in his entry.

Also, from a port or ports on the Atlantic to any other port on the Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, or the Pacific, or vice versa, by such route and conveyance as the party in his entry may select.

Also, from the port of New Orleans to any port of entry or delivery on the Mississippi and its tributaries, and by such conveyance and route as the party in his entry shall select.

Also, from the ports of Charleston and Savannah to the ports of Knoxville, Nashville, and Memphis.

Whatever mode of transportation may be adopted, whether by land or water, or partly by land and partly by water, if the port to which the merchandise is to be transported in bond be not more than three hundred miles distant, by the route proposed, from the port at which it is entered for transportation, thirty days will be allowed, but if the distance be more than three