United States Statutes at Large/Volume 1/4th Congress/1st Session/Chapter 5
[Obsolete.]
Chap. Ⅴ.—An Act providing relief, for a limited lime, in certain cases of invalid Registers.
Secretary of Treasury to allow certain privileges in cases of invalid registers on certain conditions.
Ante, p. 287.Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Secretary of the Treasury be, and he is hereby empowered, to allow to such vessels and their cargoes, whose registers have already, or that may, before the close of the present session of Congress, become invalid, by reason of a noncompliance with the terms of the fifth section of the act “concerning the registering and recording of ships or vessels,” the same privileges and benefits, they would have been entitled to, if no such invalidity had taken place: Provided, it shall appear to him, that such non-compliance did not proceed from wilful negligence or an intention of fraud: And provided also, that a new register shall be obtained, in the manner prescribed by law, for such vessels respectively, as may now be within the United States, within ninety days from the passing of this act; and for others, within the same time after their first arrival within the United States.
Approved, March 10, 1796.