e their best endeavors to accomplish so desirable an object."
_U.S. Treaties and Conventions_ (ed. 1889), p. 405.

~1815, Dec. 8. Alabama and Mississippi Territory: Act to Dispose of
Illegally Imported Slaves.~

"An Act concerning Slaves brought into this Territory, contrary to the
Laws of the United States." Slaves to be sold at auction, and the
proceeds to be divided between the territorial treasury and the
collector or informer. Toulmin, _Digest of the Laws of Alabama_, p. 637;
_Statutes of Mississippi digested_, etc. (ed. 1816), p. 389.

~1816, Nov. 18. North Carolina: Act to Dispose of Illegally Imported
Slaves.~

"An act to direct the disposal of negroes, mulattoes and persons of
colour, imported into this state, contrary to the provisions of an act
of the Congress of the United States, entitled 'an act to prohibit the
importation of slaves into any port or place, within the jurisdiction of
the United States, from and after the first day of January, in the year
of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and eight.'"

Sec. 1. Every slave illegally imported after 1808 shall be sold for the use
of the State.

Sec. 2. The sheriff shall seize and sell such slave, and pay the proceeds
to the treasurer of the State.

Sec. 3. If the slave abscond, the sheriff may offer a reward not exceeding
one-fifth of the value of the slave. _Laws of North Carolina, 1816_, ch.
xii. p. 9; _Laws of North Carolina_ (revision of 1819), II. 1350.

~1816, Dec. 3. President Madison's Message.~

"The United States having been the first to abolish, within the extent
of their authority, the transportation of the natives of Africa into
slavery, by prohibiting the introduction of slaves, and by punishing
their citizens participating in the traffick, cannot but be gratified at
the progress, made by concurrent efforts of other nations, towards a
general suppression of so great an evil. They must feel, at the same
time, the greater solicitude to give the fullest efficacy to their own
regulations. With that view, the interposition of Congress appears to be
required by the violations and evasions which, it is suggested, are
chargeable on unworthy citizens, who mingle in the slave trade under
foreign flags, and with foreign ports; and by collusive importations of
slaves into the United States, through adjoining ports and territories.
I present the subject to Congress, with a full assurance of their
disposition to apply all the remedy which c