FOREIGN PAUPERS AND CRIMINALS — The bill reported in the House of Representatives on the 2d inst., in relation to foreign paupers , makes it the duty of the U. S. Consuls, on personal application to them or persons wishing to emigrate to the United States, to grant them a certificate, on proof that the applicant is of sound mind, and not a pauper, nor blind, nor a convict for a felonious offense; and that said applicant has not, for the space of five years next preceding the date thereof, been afflicted with lunacy, insanity, idiocy, or any derangement of intellect, and that said applicant, of his or her own accord, is desirous of emigrating to the United States, and is not sent out of his or her native country, or the country in which he or she has resided, by any individual, society, association, corporation or authority whatsoever.

Consuls are also to be required to inform each other of the fact on learning that any pauper or convict is about to embark for the United States, and the consul at the port of embarkation to lay the facts before the captain of the vessel on which such person is about to take passage.  Captains of vessels brining immigrants to the United States without the required certificate to be fined $50

[1], and imprisoned not over one year, for every alien so brought, the vessel also to be forfeited.  The bill contains several other provisions.[2]

 

[1] 5$0.00 in 1855 is approximately $178.00 -$ 200.00 in 2015

[2] The Sun (Baltimore, Maryland).  January 10th,1855.  Page [1].