To cap the climax, the government officials were so negligent that Secretary Crawford, in 1820, confessed to Congress that “it appears, from an examination of the records of this office, that no particular instructions have ever been given, by the Secretary of the Treasury, under the original or supplementary acts prohibiting the introduction of slaves into the United States."[100] Beside this inactivity, the government was criminally negligent in not prosecuting and punishing offenders when captured.  Urgent appeals for instruction from prosecuting attorneys were too often received in official silence; complaints as to the violation of law by State officers went unheeded;[101] informers were unprotected and sometimes driven from home.[102] Indeed, the most severe comment on the whole period is the report, January 7, 1819, of the Register of the Treasury, who, after the wholesale and open violation of the Act of 1807, reported, in response to a request from the House, “that it doth not appear, from an examination of the records of this office, and particularly of the accounts (to the date of their last settlement) of the collectors of the customs, and of the several marshals of the United States, that any forfeitures had been incurred under the said act."[103]

63. Typical Cases. At this date (January 7, 1819), however, certain cases were stated to be pending, a history of which will fitly conclude this discussion.  In 1818 three American schooners sailed from the United States to Havana; on June 2 they started back with cargoes aggregating one hundred and seven slaves.  The schooner “Constitution” was captured by one of Andrew Jackson’s officers under the guns of Fort Barancas.  The “Louisa” and “Marino” were captured by Lieutenant McKeever of the United States Navy.  The three vessels were duly proceeded against at Mobile, and the case began slowly to drag along.  The slaves, instead of being put under the care of the zealous marshal of the district, were placed in the hands of three bondsmen, friends of the judge.  The marshal notified the government of this irregularity, but apparently received no answer.  In 1822 the three vessels were condemned as forfeited, but the court “reserved” for future order the distribution of the slaves.  Nothing whatever either then or later was done to the slave-traders themselves.  The owners of the ships promptly appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States, and that tribunal, in 1824, condemned the three vessels and the slaves on two of them.[104] These slaves, considerably reduced in number “from various causes,” were sold at auction for the benefit of the State, in spite of the Act of 1819.  Meantime, before the decision of the Supreme Court, the judge of the Supreme Court of West Florida had awarded to certain alleged Spanish claimants of the slaves indemnity for nearly the whole number seized, at the price of $650 per head, and the Secretary of the Treasury had actually paid the claim.[105] In