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![handle is hein.slavery/ussccases0140 and id is 1 raw text is: JANUARY TERM I830.
THE UNUr.tD STATzs, AwPLLATS rO. IsAAc T. PREsToN, ATToR-
=r-y Gmisxus or Louisi&vA, Ar1'=X~E.
The offence against the law of. the United States, under the seventh section-of
the.act of congress, passed the 2d of March 1807,-entitled an act to prohibit
the importation of slaves into any port or place within the jtidrisdiction of the
United States from and after the 1st of January' 1808, is not that of importing
or bringing into the United States persons of colour with intent to hold or sell
Auch persons as slaves, but that of hovering on the coast of the United States
with such intent; and although it forfeits the vessel and any goods or effects
found on board, it is silent as to disposing of the coloured persons found on
board, any further than to impose a duty upon the officers of armed vessels
who make the capture to keep them safely, to be delivered to the overseers of
the poor or the governor of the state or persovs appointed. by the respective
states to receive the same. [65]
The Josefa Segunda, havingjiersons of colour on board of her, was, on the 1lth
of February 1818, found hovering on the coast of the United States, and was
seized and brought into New Orleans, and the vessel and the personson board
were libelled in the district court of the United States of Louisiana, under the
act of congress of the 2d of March 1807. After the decree of condemnation
below, but pending the appeal to this court,-the sheriff of New Orleanswent
on, with the consent of all the parties to the proceedings, to sell the persons of
colour as slaves, and sixty-five thousand dollars, the proceeds, were deposited
in the registry of the court to await the final disposal of the law. '
By the tenth secon ;f the act of 30th of April 1818, the six first sections of the
act are repealed, and no provision is made by which the conaftion of the per-
sons of colour found on board a vessel hovering on the coast of the United.
States is altered from that in which'they were placed under the act of 1807,
no power having been &iven to dispose of them otherwise than to appoint some.
one to receive them. The seventh section of the act of 1818 confirms no
other sales previously or subsequently made under the state laws, but those
for illegal importation, and does not comprise the case of a condemnation
under the seventh section.
The final condemnation of the persons on board the Josefa Segunda took place
in this court on the 13th of March 1820, after congress had passed the'act of
the 3d of March 1819, entitlea an act in addition to an act prohibiting the
slave trade, bythe provisions of which persons of colour brought in under any
of the acts prohibiting traffic in slaves, were to be delivered to the-president of
the United States to be sent to Africa. It could not affect them.
In admiralty cases a decree is not final while an appeal from the same is depend-
ing in this court, and any statute which'governs the case must be -an existing
valid statute at the time of affirming the decree below. If, therefore the per-
sons of colour, who were on board the Josefa Segunda when captured, had been
specifically before the court on the 13th of March 1820, they must have been
delivered up to the president of the United States to be sent to Africa, under
the provisions of the act of the 3d of March 1819, and therefore thereis no
VOL. III.-H](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.slavery/ussccases0140&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)