An Act to provide an additional Armament for the further protection of the trade of the United States; and for other purposes.
Law as Written [1]
SECTION 1 . Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States o f America in Congress assembled, That the President of the United States shall be, and he is hereby authorized and empowered, to cause to be built, purchased or hired, a number of vessels, not exceeding twelve, nor carrying more than twenty-two guns each, to be armed, fitted out and manned under his direction.
SEC . 2. And be it further enacted, That the number and grade of the officers to be appointed for the service of the said vessels, shall be fixed by the President of the United States, as well as the number of men of which the respective crews shall be composed, who, as well officers as seamen and marines, shall receive the same pay and subsistence, be entitled to the same advantages and compensations, be governed by the same rules and regulations, and be engaged for the same time, and on the same conditions, as by an act of the United States, passed the first of July, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-seven, entitled "An act providing a naval armament," is ascertained and established, as fully, as if the particular provisions of that act, having reference thereto, were herein inserted at large. Provided always, and be it further enacted, That the President of the United States be, and he is hereby authorized to cause the term of enlistment of the seamen and marines, to be employed in any vessel of the United States, to be extended beyond one year, if the vessel should then be at sea, and until ten days after such vessel shall arrive in some convenient port of the United States, thereafter; any thing contained in this act, or in the act entitled "An act providing a naval armament," to the contrary notwithstanding.
SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That the officers of the aforesaid vessels may, during the recess of the Senate, be appointed and commissioned by the President alone.
SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That the sum of nine hundred and fifty thousand dollars be and are hereby appropriated out of any monies in the treasury of the United States, beyond the appropriations that may heretofore have been charged thereon, for the purpose of carrying the objects of this act into effect.
APPROVED, April 27, 1798.