prohibition."[111] This proposition was naturally
opposed as "inconsistent with the principles of our Government, and
calculated to throw as wide open the door to the importation of slaves
as it was before the existing prohibition."[112] The act, which became a
law April 20, 1818,[113] was a poorly constructed compromise, which
virtually acknowledged the failure of efforts to control the trade, and
sought to remedy defects by pitting cupidity against cupidity, informer
against thief. One-half of all forfeitures and fines were to go to the
informer, and penalties for violation were changed as follows:--

For equipping a slaver, instead of a fine of $20,000, a fine of
$1000 to $5000 and imprisonment from 3 to 7 years.

For transporting Negroes, instead of a fine of $5000 and
forfeiture of ship and Negroes, a fine of $1000 to $5000 and
imprisonment from 3 to 7 years.

For actual importation, instead of a fine of $1000 to $10,000
and imprisonment from 5 to 10 years, a fine of $1000 to
$10,000, and imprisonment from 3 to 7 years.

For knowingly buying illegally imported Negroes, instead of a
fine of $800 for each Negro and forfeiture, a fine of $1000 for
each Negro.

The burden of proof was laid on the defendant, to the extent that he
must prove that the slave in question had been imported at least five
years before the prosecution. The slaves were still left to the disposal
of the States.

This statute was, of course, a failure from the start,[114] and at the
very next session Congress took steps to revise it. A bill was reported
in the House, January 13, 1819, but it was not discussed till
March.[115] It finally passed, after "much debate."[116] The Senate
dropped its own bill, and, after striking out the provision for the
death penalty, passed the bill as it came from the House.[117] The House
acquiesced, and the bill became a law, March 3, 1819,[118] in the midst
of the Missouri trouble. This act directed the President to use armed
cruisers on the coasts of the United States and Africa to suppress the
slave-trade; one-half the proceeds of the condemned ship were to go to
the captors as bounty, provided the Africans were safely lodged with a
United States marshal and the crew with the civil authorities. These
provisions were seriously marred by a proviso which Butler of Louisiana,
had inserted, with a "due regard for the interests of the State which he
represented," viz.,