those surreptitiously sold into bondage; this was due to the powerful abettors--often legalized ones--of the traffic. A lack of intelligent forethought was responsible for disheartening results in their early efforts at colonization. But the society’s efforts at home were more successful by fostering a spirit against the trade, and it was instrumental in regulating the laws in some of the Southern States which were so ambiguous as to aid rather than crush the trade.[15] In 1819, Congress stipulated that contraband Africans were to be taken from State jurisdiction to become wards of the Government, and the President was authorized to make “such regulations and arrangements as he may deem expedient for the safe-keeping, support, and removal beyond the limits of the United States, of all such negroes, mulattoes, or persons of color, as may be so delivered and brought within their jurisdiction. And to appoint a proper person or persons, residing upon the coast of Africa, as agent or agents for receiving negroes, etc., delivered from on board vessels, seized in the prosecution of trade by commanders of the United States armed vessels.” In 1819, Congress acting upon a memorial presented by the Colonization Society, declared the slave traffic to be piracy punishable with death. In this same year the statute of 1809 was enlarged and made more stringent and the President was empowered to send armed vessels along the African coast. One hundred thousand dollars was appropriated for this purpose. Rigid legislation only multiplied the horrors, without curtailing the evil. With death as the penalty, when there was danger of apprehension, it was not uncommon for the whole cargo to be thrown into the sea. This, compared with the tortures of frequent passages, was almost humane. To escape the terrors, numbers would embrace death if given the opportunity. Yet the trade was highly profitable even if three out of four cargoes were lost.