Whereas by an act of the lieutenant-governor, council, and assembly of
His Britannic Majesty's Province of Nova Scotia, passed in the year
1816, it was, among other things, enacted that from and after the 1st
day of May of that year "no plaster of paris, otherwise called gypsum,
which should be laden or put on board any ship or vessel at any port
or place within the limits of the said Province to be transported from
thence to any other port or place within or without the said limits
should, directly or indirectly, be unladen or landed or put on shore at
any port or place in the United States of America eastward of Boston,
in the State of Massachusetts, nor unladen or put on board any American
ship, vessel, boat, or shallop of any description at any port or place
eastward of Boston aforesaid, under the penalty of the forfeiture of
every such ship or vessel from which any such plaster of paris, or
gypsum, should be unladen contrary to the provision of the said act,
together with her boats, tackle, apparel, and furniture, to be seized
and prosecuted in the manner thereinafter mentioned;" and
Whereas by an act of the Congress of the United States passed on the
3d day of March, 1817, it was enacted that from and after the 4th day
of July then next no plaster of paris the production of any country or
its dependencies from which the vessels of the United States were not
permitted to bring the same article should be imported into the United
States in any foreign vessel, and that all plaster of paris imported or
attempted to be imported into the United States contrary to the true
intent and meaning of the said act of Congress, and the vessel in which
the same might be imported or attempted to be imported, together with
the cargo, tackle, apparel, and furniture, should be forfeited to the
United States and liable to be seized, prosecuted, and condemned in the
manner therein prescribed; and
Whereas by the said act of Congress it was further enacted that the
same should continue and be in force five years from January 31, 1817;
provided, nevertheless, that if any foreign nation or its dependencies
which at the time of the passage of the said act of Congress had in
force regulations on the subject of the trade in plaster of paris
prohibiting the exportation thereof to certain ports of the United
States should discontinue such regulations, the President of the United
States was thereby authorized to declare that fact by his proclamation,
and the restrictions imposed by the said act of Congress should from the
date of such proclamation cease and be discontinued in relation to the
nation or its dependencies discontinuing such regulations; and
Whereas an act of the lieutenant-governor, council, and assembly
of His Britannic Majesty's Province of Nova Scotia, repealing the
above-mentioned act of the said Province, passed in the year 1816, has
been officially communicated by his said Majesty's envoy extraordinary
and minister plenipotentiary to this Government; and
Whereas by the said repealing act of the said Province of Nova Scotia,
one of the dependencies of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland, the regulations at the time of the passage of the said act of
Congress in force in the said Province on the subject of the trade in
plaster of paris, prohibiting the exportation thereof to certain ports
of the United States, have been and are discontinued:
Now, therefore, I, James Monroe, President of the United States of
America, do by this my proclamation declare that fact, and that the
restrictions imposed by the said act of Congress do from the date hereof
cease and are discontinued in relation to His Britannic Majesty's said
Province of Nova Scotia.
Given under my hand, at the city of Washington, this 23d day of
April, A. D. 1818, and in the forty-second year of the Independence of
the United States.