160 



1793* authorized the collectors of the customs to grant vessels duly 

 licensed permits "to touch and trade at any foreign port or place," 

 and under such documents to procure salt and other necessary outfits 

 without being subjected to the payment of duties. This act, which is 

 still in force, has proved extremely beneficial to our fishing vessels in 

 certain emergencies; but it may be admitted that its privileges are 

 liable to be abused. Four years later, the system of allowances to 

 vessels emplo3^cd in the cod-fishery was revised. Under the law then 

 passed, the smallest class were entitled to draw from the treasui-y one 

 dollar and sixty cents per ton annually ; and vessels upwards of twenty 

 tons, two dollars and forty cents the ton; while the maximum was 

 increased to two hundred and seventy-two dollars. A second revision 

 occurred in the year 1800, which effected some changes in details, but 

 which provided for the continuance of the rates of allowance then 

 fixed until March, 1811. 



President Jefferson, in his message to Congress in 1802, spoke of 

 "fostering our fisheries as nurseries of navigation, and for the nurture 

 of man," as among "the land-marks by which we were to be guided in 

 all our proceedings;" and made further allusion to the subject in his 

 annual communication of the following year. His remarks, in the 

 second message, were referred to a committee of Congress, who, in their 

 report, said that there was too much reason to believe that both the 

 whale and cod-fisheries had been for some time on the decline, and 

 that it was more than doubtful whether the United States employed as 

 many men and tons in these branches of industry as when they were 

 colonies or previous to the Revolution. As a means to reanimate them, 

 they recommended that ships and vessels actually and exclusively 

 employed in these fisheries should not, in future, be subject to the pay- 

 ment of the tonnage duty levied on other vessels; that fishermen and 

 other persons actually employed in catching whales and fish should be 

 exempt from the usual charge of hospital money ; and that the bounty 

 or allowance under existing laws should be paid in cases of shipwreck 

 or loss of vessels without deduction. 



A single incident more of the 3'ear 1803 claims our notice. One 

 hundred and five inhabitants of Block island, engaged in the cod-fish- 

 ery, joined in a petition to Congress for an allowance or bounty on 

 boats of less than five tons burden. They represented, that fiom the 

 bleak situation of the island which they inhabited, and the high surf 



* The following notice, which was published in a Boston newspaper, April, 1794, is inserted 

 as a matter of curious history, rather than to illustrate the text: 



"Salmon-stanii. — Great inconveniency arising from exposing salmon for sale on the Ex- 

 change, in State street, where citizens of the town, and those from abroad, asfemble to trans- 

 act business, the board of selectmen have assigned a stand therefor in Market square. Those 

 who bring salmon for sale from neighboring towns are requested to apply to the clerk of the 

 market, at his office, north corner of Faueuil Hall, who will point tliem to the stand. The 

 law against nuisances is sufficient; a wish to accommodate, 'tis hoped, will preclude the neces- 

 sity of coercion. The inspector of polite makes this publication, having in view the prosperity 

 of our country brethren, as well as acconnnodation of the town. He gratefully acknowledges 

 the past kindness of his fellow-citizens, and requests, in this instance, that neither themselves, 

 nor those under them, would purchase salmon in State street, but apply at the stand assigned 

 therefor. 



" N. B. — The printers in town, and those in Salem, Newbuiyport, and Haverhill are requested 

 to publish the above." 



