Section III. _And be it further enacted_, That the owner, master or factor of each and every foreign ship or vessel, clearing out for any of the coasts or kingdoms of Africa, or suspected to be intended for the Slave-trade, and the suspicion being declared to the officer of the customs, by any citizen, on oath or affirmation, and such information being to the satisfaction of the said officer, shall first give bond with sufficient sureties, to the Treasurer of the United States, that none of the natives of Africa, or any other foreign country or place, shall be taken on board the said ship or vessel, to be transported, or sold as slaves, in any other foreign port or place whatever, within nine months thereafter. Section IV. _And be it further enacted_, That if any citizen or citizens of the United States shall, contrary to the true intent and meaning of this act, take on board, receive or transport any such persons, as above described in this act, for the purpose of selling them as slaves, as afore said, he or they shall forfeit and pay, for each and every person, so received on board, transported, or sold as afore said, the sum of two hundred dollars, to be recovered in any court of the United States, proper to try the same, the one moiety thereof, to the use of the United States, and the other moiety to the use of such person or persons, who shall sue for and prosecute the same. FREDERICK AUGUSTUS MUHLENBERG, _Speaker of the House of Representatives_. JOHN ADAMS, _Vice President of the United States, and President of the Senate_. Approved--March the twenty second, 1794, Go. Washington, _President of the United States_. TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES IN CONGRESS ASSEMBLED.[8] The memorial and petition of the Delegates from the several Societies, formed in different parts of the United States, for promoting the abolition of slavery, in Convention assembled at Philadelphia, on the first day of January, 1794. _Respectfully shew_, THAT your memorialists, having been appointed, by various Societies, in different parts of the Union, for the benevolent purpose of endeavouring to alleviate or suppress some of the miseries of their fellow-creatures, deem it their duty to approach the Congress of the United States with a respectful representation of certain evils,--the unauthorised acts of a few, but injurious to the interest and reputation of all. America, dignified by being the first in modern times, to assert and defend the equal rights of man, suffers her fame to be tarnished and her example to be weakened, by a cruel commerce, carried on from some of her ports, for the supply of foreign nations with African slaves.