the treasury, for the purpose of obtaining a release or discharge of the said debt; which application shall state, as near as may be, the time when the applicant became insolvent, how soon thereafter he made known his insol vency to his creditors, the cause or causes, and the amount of such insol. vency; and, also, all the estate, real and personal, which the said applicant owned at the time of his insolvency, and the manner in which such estate has been disposed of; and what estate, if any, he has since owned, and still owns.(1)

2193. The secretary of the treasury is hereby directed to transmit to the district attorney of the United States for the district or territory within which the said applicant shall reside, a certificate copy of the said application, with such instructions as he may think proper; and it shall be the duty of the said district attorney to lay the said copy of such application before the com missioner or commissioners of insolvency to be appointed by virtue of this act, and to appear and act before them as counsel in behalf of the United States.(2)

2194. The secretary of the treasury is hereby authorized and directed to appoint any number of commissioners of insolvency he may think proper, not exceeding three in each judicial district or territory of the United States, who, before they enter upon the duties of their appointment, shall severally take an oath or affirmation before one of the justices of the supreme court, or before any judge of a district court of the United States, that they will faithfully execute the trust committed to them and it shall be the duty of the said commissioner or commissioners to proceed publicly to examine the books, papers, and vouchers of each of the said applicants, and they or either of them shall also be authorized to examine each of the said applicants, or any other person or persons, upon oath or affirmation, touching the said applica. tion and it shall be the duty of the said commissioner or commissioners to make a report, in writing, to the said secretary, of the result of their examination in each case, therein particularly stating, as near as may be, the time when the applicant became insolvent, how soon thereafter he made known his insolvency to his creditors, the cause or causes, and the amount of such insolvency; and, also, all the estate, real and personal, which the said applicant owned at the time of his insolvency, and the manner in which such estate has been disposed of; and what estate, if any, he has since owned, and still owns.(3).

2195. The secretary of the treasury, after he shall have received the report of the said commissioner or commissioners, shall proceed to examine the circumstances of each case; and if it shall have been proved to his satisfac tion that the said debtor is unable to pay the said debt or debts which he owes to the United States; that he hath done no act fraudulently to deprive the United States of their legal priority; that he has not been guilty of any fraud, nor made any conveyance of his estate, real or personal, in trust for himself, or with an intent to defraud the United States, or whereby to expect any benefit or advantage to himself or family; then and in that case, the said secretary may compromise with the said debtor, upon such terms and conditions as he may think reasonable and proper under all the circumstances of the case, and may execute a release to him or her for the amount of the said debt or debts which he or she may owe to the United States; which said release shall contain a recital that the foregoing particulars have been satisfactorily proved to the said secretary: Provided, however, That the said release shall be rendered null and void, if it shall at any time be

(1) Act 2d March, 1831, sec. 1. (2) Ibid. sec. 2.

(3) Ibid. sec. 3.

"

da ascertained that the said insolvent debtor hath obtained the same upon false suggestions.(1)

2196. Each of the said commissioners of insolvency shall receive five dollars per day for each day they shall be actually employed in the performance of their duty under this act; which sum, together with the actual expense incurred for office rent and all other contingencies, provided the same shall not, in the whole, exceed two dollars per day, shall be apportioned among the several applicants by the said commissioner or commissioners, under the direction of the secretary of the treasury, according to the time occupied in the investigation of each case; and each of the said applicants, immediately after the investigation of his or her case shall be completed, by the commissioner or commissioners, and before the report shall be transmitted to the said secretary, shall pay his or her respective proportions of the same: and it shall be the duty of the said commissioner or commissioners to transmit with his or their report, in each case, a statement, under oath or affirmation, to the said secretary, of the time actually occupied in the investigation thereof and the amount which they shall have received from the said applicant.(2)

2197. The compensation to be paid to the district attorney of each district and territory shall be five dollars for each day he shall be actually employed under the provisions of this act.(3)

2198. It shall be the duty of the secretary of the treasury to report annually to congress the names of the applicants under this act, and the nature and amount of the debt or debts due from each to the United States; and, also, the names of those who shall have obtained releases, together with the terms of compromise in each case.(4)

2199. All and each of the provisions of the act to which this is an addition, shall be extended to every person who was a debtor to the United States on the first day of January, one thousand eight hundred and thirtyone, in any sum of money which he is unable to pay, unless such person be indebted as the principal in an official bond, or for public money received by him, and not paid over or accounted for according to law; or for any fine, forfeiture, or penalty, incurred by the violation of any law of the United States.(5)

2200. In all such cases of indebtedness as are described in the fourth section of the act to which this is an addition, the secretary of the treasury may, according to his discretion, execute to the debtor of the United States a release, as mentioned therein, without any, payment by said debtor, if the secretary of the treasury is satisfied that said debtor is unable to pay any part of said debt.(6)

2201. Nothing contained in this act, or in the act of which it is an amendment, shall be construed to entitle any government debtor to be discharged, until it shall appear to the satisfaction of the secretary of the treasury, that the sureties of such debtor are unable to pay the said debt, and that they are entitled to the provisions of this act, in like manner as the said principal debtor shall be entitled to the same, or, unless said sureties shall file their consent, in writing, with the secretary of the treasury, that the privileges of this act, and the act to which this is an amendment, may be extended to their principal without any prejudice to their liability, or unless such discharge can and shall be given in such manner as not to affect the legal liability of such sureties.(7)

(1) Act 2d March, 1831, sec. 4.
(2) Ibid. sec. 6.
(3) Ibid. sec. 7.

Ibid. sec. 8.

(5) Act 14th July, 1832, sec. 1.
(6) Ibid. sec. 2.

(7) Ibid. sec. 3.

2202. If any surety, or co-surety, of any debtor who is, or shall become, an applicant for relief under the provisions of the acts of 1832 and 1833, shall be dead, the consent of the legal representative or representatives of such deceased surety, or co-surety, shall be received, and entitle the applicant to relief, in like manner as the consent of a living surety, or co-surety, would do by the provisions of the third section of the act of the fourteenth of July, eighteen hundred and thirty-two; and if the surety, or co-surety, of any such debtor shall be absent in parts unknown, or if the consent of the legal representative or representatives of any deceased surety, or cosurety, cannot be obtained, and the property or estate of any such deceased or absent surety, or co-surety, shall not be sufficient to pay the debt due to the United States, and the secretary of the treasury shall be satisfied by proof of these facts, he shall be authorized, in all such cases, to grant such relief or discharge as the debtor applying for the same may be entitled to, according to the provisions of the acts which this act is intended to revive and amend, upon the condition that such debtor shall not be discharged thereby from his or her legal liability to such absent surety, or co-surety, or to the estate of such deceased debtor, for any part of the debt due to the United States, which may thereafter be paid by or out of the estate of any such absent or deceased surety, or co-surety.(1)*

2203. All discharges which have heretofore been granted by the secretary of the treasury to any principal debtor, with the consent of the legal representative or representatives of any deceased surety, or co-surety, shall be as valid as though such surety or co-surety, had been alive, and his or her consent obtained, according to the letter of the third section of the act of the fourteenth of July, eighteen hundred and thirty-two.(2)

2204. The secretary of the treasury shall be authorized to cause satisfaction to be entered upon all judgments against such insolvents as have heretofore been, or may hereafter be, relieved under the provisions of the acts which this act is intended to revive and amend; or under any other and former act of congress for the relief of persons imprisoned for debts due to the United States: Provided, The district judge of the district in which such judgments are on record, shall certify that he is satisfied that the debtor is possessed or entitled to no property liable to be applied to the satisfaction of said judgments, and that the interest of the government does not require that such judgments should remain unsatisfied. In every case of application for such certificate to a judge at his chambers, ten days' notice shall be given to the district attorney for the district, when the application is made.(3)

2205. The act, entitled, "An act for the relief of certain insolvent debtors of the United States," passed on the second day of March, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-one, and an act in addition thereto, passed on the fourteenth day of July, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-two, and an act to revive and amend the said acts, passed on the seventh day of June, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-four, are hereby extended and continued in force for three years from and after the passage of this act.(4)

2206. The provisions of the said several acts shall apply to cases of insolvency which shall have occurred on or before the first day of January last.(5)

(1) Act 7th June, 1834, sec. 2. (2) Ibid. sec. 3.

(3) Ibid. sec. 4.

(4) Act 2d March, 1837, sec. 1.
(5) Ibid. sec. 2.

The first section of the act of 7th June, 1834, revived the acts of 2d March, 1831, and 14th July, 1832, which acts expired on the 2d March, 1834, and continued them for three years.

CHAPTER IV.

OF FUGITIVES FROM JUSTICE.

Fugitives from justice from one state, &c. to another, how apprehended and delivered up

2207

ART. 2207. Whenever the executive authority of any state in the Union, or of either of the territories north-west or south of the river Ohio, shall demand any person as a fugitive from justice, of the executive authority of any such state or territory to which such person shall have fled, and shall, moreover, produce the copy of an indictment found, or an affidavit made, before a magistrate of any such state or territory, charging the person so demanded with having committed treason, felony, or other crime, certified as authentic by the governor or chief magistrate of the state or territory from whence the person so charged fled, it shall be the duty of the executive authority of the state or territory to which such person shall have fled, to cause him or her to be arrested and secured, and notice of the arrest to be given to the executive authority making such demand, or to the agent of such authority appointed to receive the fugitive, and to cause the fugitive to be delivered to such agent when he shall appear: But if no such agent shall appear within six months from the time of the arrest, the prisoner may be discharged. And all costs or expenses incurred in the apprehending, securing, and transmitting such fugitive to the state or territory making such demand, shall be paid by such state or territory.(1)

Any agent so appointed, who shall receive the fugitive into his custody, shall be empowered to transport him or her to the state or territory from which he or she shall have fled. And if any person or persons shall, by force, set at liberty, or rescue the fugitive from such agent while transporting him or her, as aforesaid, the person or persons so offending, shall, on conviction, be fined not exceeding five hundred dollars, and be imprisoned not exceeding one year.(2)

ART. 2208. No person held to service or labour, in one state, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labour, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labour may be due.(3)

2209. When any person held to labour in any of the United States, or in either of the territories on the north-west or south of the river Ohio, under

(1) Act 12th Feb. 1793, sec. 1.

(2) Ibid. sec. 2.

(3) Constitution, art. 4, sec. 3.

the laws thereof, shall escape into any other of the said states or territory, the person to whom such labour or service may be due, his agent or attorney, is hereby empowered to seize or arrest such fugitive from labour, and to take him or her before any judge of the circuit or district courts of the United States, residing or being within the state, or before any magistrate of a county, city, or town corporate, wherein such seizure or arrest shall be made, and upon proof, to the satisfaction of such judge or magistrate, either by oral testimony or affidavit taken before and certified by a magistrate of any such state or territory, that the person so seized or arrested, doth, under the laws of the state or territory from which he or she fled, owe service or labour to the person claiming him or her, it shall be the duty of such judge or magistrate to give a certificate thereof to such claimant, his agent or attorney, which shall be sufficient warrant for removing the said fugitive from labour, to the state or territory from which he or she fled.(1)

2210. Any person who shall knowingly and willingly obstruct or hinder such claimant, his agent or attorney, in so seizing or arresting such fugitive from labour, or shall rescue such fugitive from such claimant, his agent or attorney, when so arrested, pursuant to the authority herein given or declared; or shall harbour or conceal such person, after notice that he or she was a fugitive from labour, as aforesaid, shall, for either of the said offences, forfeit and pay the sum of five hundred dollars. Which penalty may be recovered by and for the benefit of such claimant, by action of debt, in any court proper to try the same; saving, moreover, to the person claiming such labour or service, his right of action for, or on account of, the said injuries, or either of them.(2)*

(1) Act 12th Feb. 1793, sec. 3.

(2) Ibid. sec. 4.

* It has been decided by the supreme court of Pennsylvania, that if a female slave escape from Maryland into Pennsylvania, and become pregnant there, and be delivered of a bastard child, such child is born free. The person escaping, and not the issue, being included in the act of congress.-2 Sergt. & Rawle, 306.