RELATING TO CUSTOMS, TOGETHER WITH PORTIONS OF CERTAIN COMMERCIAL TREATIES, COMPILED AND INDEXED. COMPILED BY M. P. ANDREWS. WASHINGTON: GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 1899. PREFATORY NOTE. TREASURY DEPARTMENT, Washington, D. C., August 15, 1899. This compilation is published with the view to presenting in concise and convenient form those portions of the Revised Statutes, subsequent acts of Congress, and commercial treaties now in force relating to the subject of customs administration. The work has been prepared by Mr. M. P. Andrews, under the direc tion of the Assistant Secretary in charge of customs, and an effort has been made to confine its scope within the lines separating it from the internal-revenue laws on the one hand and the navigation laws on the other. The volume is designed as a manual for the use of customs officers and others having business with customs affairs, and therefore in all cases requiring a citation of law reference should be made to the statutes themselves. The subject-matter has been divided into fifteen chapters, while, for the purpose of ready reference, the chapters have been subdivided into appropriate sections consecutively numbered to correspond with the numbered headings which appear as a syllabus at the beginning of each chapter. The marginal notes indicate the various sections of the Revised Statutes and later acts of Congress bearing upon the subject, the lat ter being brought down to and including the enactments of the third session of the Fifty-fifth Congress. A number of decided cases, opinions of the Attorneys-General, and Treasury decisions may be found in the footnotes. Matter in brackets, in italics, or roman numerals is inserted by way of explanation or correction of the text. Where, in a given section of the Revised Statutes, a foregoing section is referred to, it relates to the next preceding section of the Revised Statutes, notwithstanding some later enactment may intervene. When sections of the Revised Statutes or other laws have been specifically repealed or amended by subsequent legislation, the repealed portions of the law have been omitted, and the present, not the original, reading of the amended section has been adopted. Wherever the effect of repealing or amendatory statutes upon previous legislation is not clear and specific, both the original and repealing or amendatory legislation have been incorporated. At the beginning of the volume are a "Table of Contents" and a "Table of Laws" contained in this compilation, with the pages of this work on which they may be found. The whole is concluded with a complete alphabetical index. L. J. GAGE, Secretary. III |