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Subject Area: Economics
Topic: Free Trade

THE COMPROMISE ACT. - Condy Raguet, The Principles of Free Trade [1835]

Edition used:

The Principles of Free Trade illustrated in a series of short and familiar Essays originally published in the Banner of the Constitution, 2nd ed. (Philadelphia, 1840).

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Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


THE COMPROMISE ACT.

AN ACT to modify the act of the fourteenth of July, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-two, and all other acts imposing duties on imports.

[Sec. 1.]Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That from and after the thirty-first day of December, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-three, in all cases where duties are imposed on foreign imports by the act of the fourteenth day of July, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-two, entitled “An act to alter and amend the several acts imposing duties on imports,” or by any other act, shall exceed twenty per centum on the value thereof, one-tenth part of such excess shall be deducted; from and after the thirty-first day of December, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-five, another tenth part thereof shall be deducted; from and after the thirty-first day of December, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-seven, another tenth part thereof shall be deducted; from and after the thirty-first day of December, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-nine, another tenth part thereof shall be deducted; and from and after the thirty-first day of December, one thousand eight hundred and forty-one, one-half of the residue of such excess shall be deducted; and from and after the thirtieth day of June, one thousand eight hundred and forty-two, the other half thereof shall be deducted.

Sec. 2.And be it further enacted, That so much of the second section of the act of the fourteenth of July aforesaid, as fixes the rate of duty on all milled and fulled cloth, known by the names of plains, kerseys, or kendal cottons, of which wool is the only material, the value whereof does not exceed thirty-five cents a square yard, at five per centum ad valorem, shall be, and the same is hereby repealed. And the said articles shall be subject to the same duty of fifty per centum, as is provided by the said second section for other manufactures of wool; which duty shall be liable to the same deductions as are prescribed by the first section of this act.

Sec. 3.And be it further enacted, That until the thirtieth day of June, one thousand eight hundred and forty two, the duties imposed by existing laws, as modified by this act, shall remain and continue to be collected. And from and after the day last aforesaid, all duties upon imports shall be collected in ready money; and all credits now allowed by law in the payment of duties, shall be, and hereby are abolished; and such duties shall be laid for the purpose of raising such revenue as may be necessary to an economical administration of the Government; and from and after the day last aforesaid, the duties required to be paid by law on goods, wares and merchandise, shall be assessed upon the value thereof at the port where the same shall be entered, under such regulations as may be prescribed by law.

Sec. 4.And be it further enacted, That in addition to the articles now exempt by the act of the fourteenth of July, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-two, and the existing laws, from the payment of duties, the following articles, imported from and after the thirty-first day of December, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-three, and until the thirtieth day of June, one thousand eight hundred and forty-two, shall also (be) admitted to entry, free from duty, to wit: bleached and unbleached linens, table linen, linen napkins, and linen cambrics; and worsted stuff goods, shawls, and other manufactures of silk and worsted, manufactures of silk, or of which silk shall be the component material of chief value, coming from this side of the Cape of Good Hope, except sewing silk.

Sec. 5.And be it further enacted, That from and after the said thirtieth day of June, one thousand eight hundred and forty-two, the following articles shall be admitted to entry, free from duty, to wit: indigo, quicksilver, sulphur, crude saltpetre, grindstones, refined borax, emery, opium, tin in plates and sheets, gum arabic, gum senegal, lac dye, madder, madder root, nuts and berries used in dying, saffron, tumeric, woad or pastel, aloes, ambergris, Burgundy pitch, cochineal, chamomile flowers, coriander seed, catsup, chalk, coculus indicus, horn plates for lanterns, ox horns, other horns and tips, India rubber, manufactured ivory, juniper berries, musk, nuts of all kinds, oil of juniper, unmanufactured rattans and reeds, tortoise-shell, tin foil, shellac, vegetables used principally in dying and composing dyes, weld, and all articles employed chiefly for dying, except alum, copperas, bichromate of potash, prussiate of potash, chromate of potash, and nitrate of lead, aquafortis, and tartaric acid. And all imports on which the first section of this act may operate, and all articles now admitted to entry free from duty, or paying a less rate of duty than twenty per centum ad valorem, before the said thirtieth day of June, one thousand eight hundred and forty-two, from and after that day may be admitted to entry subject to such duty, not exceeding twenty per centum ad valorem, as shall be provided for by law.

Sec. 6.And be it further enacted, That so much of the act of the fourteenth day of July, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-two, or of any other act as is inconsistent with this act, shall be, and the same is hereby repealed: Provided, That nothing herein contained shall be so construed as to prevent the passage, prior or subsequent to the said thirtieth day of June, one thousand eight hundred and forty-two, free of any act or acts, from time to time, that may be necessary to detect, prevent, or punish evasions of the duties on imports imposed by law, nor to prevent the passage of any act, prior to the thirtieth day of June, one thousand eight hundred and forty-two, in the contingency either of excess or deficiency of revenue, altering the rates of duties on articles which, by the aforesaid act of fourteenth day of July, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-two, are subject to a less rate of duty than twenty per centum ad valorem, in such manner as not to exceed that rate, and so to adjust the revenue to either of the said contingencies.

[Approved,March 2, 1833.]

THE END.