7742. SEAMEN, Distressed.—
Another
circumstance which claims attention, as directly
affecting the very source of our navigation, is
the defect or the evasion of the law providing
for the return of seamen, and particularly of
those belonging to vessels sold abroad. Numbers
of them, discharged in foreign ports, have
been thrown on the hands of our consuls, who,
to rescue them from the dangers into which
their distresses might plunge them, and save
them to their country, have found it necessary
in some cases to return them at the public
charge.—
Second Annual Message. Washington ed. viii, 16.
Ford ed., viii, 182.
(Dec. 1802)
