ACTS OF THE FIFTH CONGRESS
of the
UNITED STATES
Passed at the first session, which was begun and held at the City of Philadelphia, in the State of Pennsylvania, on Monday, the fifteenth day of May, 1797, and ended on the eighth of July, 1797.
John Adams, President; Thomas Jefferson, Vice President of the United States, and President of the Senate; William Bradford, President of the Senate pro tempore, from July 6th; Jonathan Dayton, Speaker of the House of Representatives.
STATUTE Ⅰ.
Chapter Ⅰ.—An Act to prevent citizens of the United States from Privateering against nations in amity with, or against citizens of the United States.
Repealed by Act of April 20, 1818, ch. 83, sec. 12.Citizens fitting out ships, or concerned therein, how pnnished and fined.
1794, ch. 50.Section 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That if any citizen or citizens of the United States shall, without the limits of the same, fit out and arm, or attempt to fit out and arm, or procure to be fitted out and armed, or shall knowingly aid or be concerned in the furnishing, fitting out or arming any private ship or vessel of war, with intent that such ship or vessel shall be employed to cruise or commit hostilities, upon the subjects, citizens or property of any prince or state with whom the United States are at peace, or upon the citizens of the United States, or their property, or shall take the command of, or enter on board of any such ship or vessel for the intent aforesaid, or shall purchase an interest in any vessel so fitted out and armed, with a view to share in the profits thereof, such person or persons so offending shall, on conviction thereof, be adjudged guilty of a high misdemeanor, and shall be punished by a fine not exceeding ten thousand dollars, and imprisonment not exceeding ten years: And the trial for such offence, if committed without the limits of the United States, shall be in the district where the offender shall be apprehended or first brought.
Construction of this act.Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That nothing in the foregoing act shall be construed to prevent the prosecution or punishment of treason, or any piracy defined by a treaty or other law of the United States.
Approved, June 14, 1797.
Statute Ⅰ.
[Expired.]
Chap. Ⅱ.—An Act prohibiting, for a limited time, the Exportation of Arms and Ammunition, and for encouraging the Importation thereof.
Section 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,Exportation of cannon, &c. unlawful until March 3, 1798. That it shall not be lawful to export from the United States any cannon, muskets, pistols, bayonets, swords, cutlasses, musket-balls, lead, bombs, grenadoes, gunpowder, sulphur or saltpetre, but the exportation of all the aforesaid articles is hereby prohibited, until to the end of the next session of Congress, and no longer.
Vessels.Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That any of the aforesaid articles, excepting such of them as may constitute a part of the equipment of520
