342
Opinion of the Court
fendant's contention that this provision was "penal," stating instead that it was "fully as remedial in its character, designed as plainly to secure [the] rights [of the Government], as are the statutes rendering importers liable to duties." 13 Wall., at 546. The Court reasoned:
"When foreign merchandise, subject to duties, is imported into the country, the act of importation imposes on the importer the obligation to pay the legal charges. Besides this the goods themselves, if the duties be not paid, are subject to seizure . . . . Every act, therefore, which interferes with the right of the government to seize and appropriate the property which has been forfeited to it . . . is a wrong to property rights, and is a fit subject for indemnity." Ibid.
Significantly, the fact that the forfeiture was a multiple of the value of the goods did not alter the Court's conclusion:
"The act of abstracting goods illegally imported, receiving, concealing, or buying them, interposes difficul-ties in the way of a government seizure, and impairs, therefore, the value of the government right. It is, then, hardly accurate to say that the only loss the government can sustain from concealing the goods liable to seizure is their single value . . . . Double the value may not be more than complete indemnity." Id., at 546-547.
The early monetary forfeitures, therefore, were considered not as punishment for an offense, but rather as serving the remedial purpose of reimbursing the Government for the losses accruing from the evasion of customs duties.17 They
17 In each of the statutes from the early Congresses cited by the dissent, the activities giving rise to the monetary forfeitures, if undetected, were likely to cause the Government losses in customs revenue. The forfeiture imposed by the Acts of Aug. 4, 1790, and Mar. 2, 1799, was not simply for "transferring goods from one ship to another," post, at 346, but rather for doing so "before such ship . . . shall come to the proper place for the discharge of her cargo . . . and be there duly authorized by the proper officer or officers of the customs to unlade" the goods, see 1 Stat. 157,
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