[108]
*Mr. Brent,
Acting Secretary of State, to Mr. Fish, district attorney.
Department of
State,
February 4,
1819.
Sir: Herewith you will receive the copy of
a letter from the district attorney of Maryland, and the original
depositions of Joseph Almeda, in the case of George Clark and Joseph
Moon, who are charged with having committed piracy and murder on
board of a vessel that is said to
[Page 490]
have been fitted out at Baltimore and to have
assumed the flag of Artigas. You see from the letter of Mr. Glenn
that a warrant was issued against these men upon the facts disclosed
by this deposition, and that Clark evaded the service of it by his
sudden departure from Baltimore for New York in the Hiram, Captain
Luther Evans, but that Moon was taken and is now under arrest and in
prison at Baltimore. Under these circumstances, it is the
President’s wish that you lose no time in setting on foot the
necessary judicial prosecutions against Clark, and such others
concerned in the crimes charged upon him as may be found in New
York, if the deposition referred to be deemed sufficient authority
for his arrest in that district, or you can otherwise obtain the
necessary evidence in his case and that of the others. [109]
The copy of a letter from the consul of the United States at the Cape
de Verd Islands to this Department in relation to these atrocities
is also inclosed; and Captain O. P. Finlay, master of the ship
Boston, one of the vessels plundered and robbed by Clark and his
party, is now at Alexandria, in this district.
I am, &c.,
- D. BRENT.
- Jonathan Fish,
Attorney, United States,
&c.
AN ACT to protect the commerce of the United
States and punish the crime of piracy.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of
Representatives of the United States of America in Congress
assembled, That the President of the United States be,
and hereby is, authorized and requested to employ so many of the
public armed vessels as, in his judgment, the service may
require, with suitable instructions to the commanders thereof,
in protecting the merchant-vessels of the United States and
*their crews from piratical aggressions and depredations. [110]
- Sec. 2. And be
it further enacted, That the President of the
United States be, and hereby is, authorized to instruct the
commanders of the public armed vessels of the United States
to subdue, seize, take, and send into any port of the United
States, any armed vessel or boat, or any vessel or boat, the
crew whereof shall be armed, and which shall have attempted
or committed any piratical aggression, search, restraint,
depredation, or seizure, upon any vessel of the United
States, or of the citizens thereof, or upon any other
vessel; and also to retake any vessel of the United States,
or its citizens, which may have been unlawfully captured
upon the high seas.
- Sec. 3. And be
it further enacted, That the commander and crew of
any merchant-vessel of the United States, owned wholly or in
part by a citizen thereof, may oppose and defend against any
aggression, search, restraint, depredation, or seizure,
which shall be attempted upon such vessel, or upon any other
vessel owned as aforesaid, by the commander or crew of any
armed vessel whatsoever, not being a public armed vessel of
some nation in amity with the United States; and may subdue
and capture the same; and may also retake any vessel, owned
as aforesaid, which may have been captured by the commander
or crew of any such armed vessel, and send the same into any
port of the United States. [111]
- Sec. 4. And be
it further enacted, That whenever any vessel or
boat, torn which any piratical aggression, search,
restraint, depredation, or
[Page 491]
seizure shall have been first
attempted or made, shall be captured and brought into any
port of the United States, the same shall and may be
adjudged and condemned to their use, and that of the
captors, after due process and trial, in any court having
admiralty jurisdiction, and which shall be holden for the
district into which such captured vessel shall be brought,
and the same court shall thereupon order a sale and
distribution thereof accordingly, and at their
discretion.
- Sec. 5. And be
it further enacted. That if any person or persons
whatsoever shall, on the high seas, commit the crime of
piracy, as defined by the law of nations, and such offender
or offenders shall afterward be brought into or found in the
United States, every such offender or offenders shall, upon
conviction thereof, before the circuit court *of the United
States for the district into which he or they may be
brought, or in which he or they shall be found, be punished
with death. [112]
- Sec. 6. And be
it further enacted, That this act shall be in force
until the end of the next session of Congress.
