No. 137.
Mr. Evarts
to Mr. Outrey.
Department
of State,
Washington, January 23,
1878.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of
your note of the 14th instant, stating that in October last the captain of
an American vessel refused to carry to Salem, Mass., from French Guiana,
certain condemned persons who had been liberated there, basing his action
upon a law, passed by the legislature of the State of Massachusetts,
forbidding the introduction into the State of persons of that character. As
the consul of the United States at Cayenne was unable to impart any
information upon the subject to the director of the penitentiary service,
you, consequently, at the instance of the minister of foreign affairs of
France, request to be informed of any statutory enactments now existing upon
this point.
In compliance with your request, I inclose herewith a copy of section 22 of
chapter 71 of the general statutes of Massachusetts of 1860, which contains
the provisions to which it is presumed the master of the American vessel
alluded to referred when he refused to take the criminals; and a copy of an
act passed by the Congress of the United States, approved March 3, 1875.
From these enactments it will be perceived that it is a penal offense to
bring to and land upon the shores of this country criminals convicted in
other countries.
Accept, &c.,
[Inclosure 1]
Section 22, chapter 71,
of the general statutes of Massachusetts of
1860.
If the master or other person having charge of a vessel, therein brings
to and lands, or suffers to be landed, within this State, a person
convicted in any other State or in a foreign country, of an infamous
crime, or a crime for which he has been sentenced to transportation,
knowing of such conviction, or having reason to suspect it, or a person
of a notoriously dissolute, infamous, and abandoned life and character,
knowing him to be such, he shall for every such offense forfeit a sum
not exceeding five hundred dollars.
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[Inclosure 2.]
AN ACT supplementary to the acts in relation to
immigration.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of
Representatives of the United States of America in Congress
assembled, That in determining whether the immigration of any
subject of China, Japan, or any Oriental country, to the United States,
is free and voluntary, as provided by section two thousand one hundred
and sixty-two of the Revised Code, title “Immigration,” it shall be the
duty of the consul-general or consul of the United States residing at
the port from which it is proposed to convey such subjects, in any
vessels enrolled or licensed in the United States, or any port within
the same, before delivering to the masters of any such vessels the
permit or certificate provided for in such section, to ascertain whether
such immigrant has entered into a contract or agreement for a term of
service within the United States, for lewd and immoral purposes; and if
there be such contract or agreement, the said consul-general or consul
shall not deliver the required permit or certificate.
- Sec. 2. That if any citizen of the
United States, or other person amenable to the laws of the United
States, shall take, or cause to be taken or transported, to or from
the United States any subject of China, Japan, or any Oriental
country, without their free and voluntary consent, for the purpose
of holding them to a term of service, such citizen or other person
shall be liable to be indicted therefor, and, on conviction of such
offense, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding two thousand
dollars and be imprisoned not exceeding one year; and all contracts
and agreements for a term of service of such persons in the United
States, whether made in advance or in pursuance of such illegal
importation, and whether such importation shall have been in
American or other vessels, are hereby declared void.
- Sec. 3. That the importation into the
United States of women for the purposes of prostitution is hereby
forbidden; and all contracts and agreements in relation thereto,
made in advance or in pursuance of such illegal importation and
purposes, are hereby declared void; and whoever shall knowingly and
willfully import, or cause any importation of, women into the United
States for the purposes of prostitution, or shall knowingly or
willfully hold, or attempt to hold, any woman to such purposes, in
pursuance of such illegal importation and contract or agreement,
shall be deemed guilty of a felony, and, on conviction thereof,
shall be imprisoned not exceeding five years and pay a fine not
exceeding five thousand dollars.
- Sec. 4. That if any person shall
knowingly and willfully contract, or attempt to contract, in advance
or in pursuance of such illegal importation, to supply to another
the labor of any cooly or other person brought into the United
States in violation of section two thousand one hundred and
fifty-eight of the Revised Statutes, or of any other section of the
laws prohibiting the cooly trade or of this act, such person shall
be deemed guilty of a felony, and, upon conviction thereof, in any
United States court, shall be fined in a sum not exceeding five
hundred dollars and imprisoned for a term not exceeding one
year.
- Sec. 5. That it shall be unlawful for
aliens of the following classes to immigrate into the United States,
namely, persons who are undergoing a sentence for conviction in
their own country of felonious crimes other than political or
growing out of or the result of such political offenses, or whose
sentence has been remitted on condition of their emigration, and
women “imported for the purposes of prostitution.” Every vessel
arriving in the United States may be inspected under the direction
of the collector of the port at which it arrives, if he shall have
reason to believe that any such obnoxious persons are on board; and
the officer making such inspection shall certify the result thereof
to the master or other person in charge of such vessel, designating
in such certificate the person or persons, if any there be,
ascertained by him to be of either of the classes whose importation
is hereby forbidden. When such inspection is required by the
collector as aforesaid, it shall be unlawful, without his
permission, for any alien to leave any such vessel arriving in the
United States from a foreign country until the inspection shall have
been had and the result certified as herein provided; and at no time
thereafter shall any alien certified to by the inspecting officer as
being of either of the classes whose immigration is forbidden by
this section be allowed to land in the United States, except in
obedience to a judicial process issued pursuant to law. If any
person shall feel aggrieved by the certificate of such inspecting
officer stating him or her to be within either of the classes whose
immigration is forbidden by this section, and shall apply for
release or other remedy to any proper court or judge, then it shall
be the duty of the collector at said port of entry to detain said
vessel until a hearing and determination of the matter are had, to
the end that if the said inspector shall be found to be in
accordance with this section and sustained, the obnoxious person or
persons shall be returned on board of said vessel, and shall not
thereafter be permitted to land, unless the master, owner, or
consignee of the vessel shall give bond and security, to be approved
by the court or judge hearing the cause, in the sum of five hundred
dollars for each such person permitted to land, conditioned for the
return of such person, within six months from the date thereof, to
the country whence his or
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her emigration shall have taken place, or unless the vessel bringing
such obnoxious person or persons shall be forfeited, in which event
the proceeds of such forfeiture shall be paid over to the collector
of the port of arrival, and applied by him, as far as necessary, to
the return of such person or persons to his or her own country
within the said period of six months. And for all violations of this
act, the vessel, by the acts, omissions, or connivance of the
owners, master, or other custodian, or the consignees of which the
same are committed, shall be liable to forfeiture, and may be
proceeded against as in cases of frauds against the revenue laws,
for which forfeiture is prescribed by existing law.
