Passport Act of 1782

Resolved, That the secretary of Congress be, and hereby is empowered to grant letters of passport and safe conduct for the exportation of such tobacco to New York, on the conditions and under the limitations which shall, to the said Secretary and to the Superintendant of the finances of the United States, appear most proper and beneficial to the said states, being consistent with the said capitulation: provided always, that permission be not given for the exporting of tobacco, beyond the amount of the produce of the sales of the said goods belonging to the capitulants abovementioned.

- Congress of the Confederation ~ Journals of the Continental Congress, Volume 22 (February 11, 1782)

United States federal statutes establishing authorities, powers, and rulings with regards to passports and sea letters awarded within the United States.

Colonial America consented to terms with European dominions for respective commerce, maritime trade, and navigation regulations upon the conclusion of the American Revolution. During the cessation of the 18th century, mediterranean basin treaties were settled upon by the North African Barbary Coast and the Iberian Peninsula foreign states.

The multinational protocol documents or treaties endorse the use of passports and sea-letters for state sovereignty identification of merchant ships navigating the seven seas. The safe-conduct permits were allocated in the event of a declaration of war between nations while sequestering manners of dissension and quarrels. The travel dockets governed the full-rigged ship name, bulk and cargo aboard sailing ship, and the identity of commanders or shipmasters including their place of habitation.

1776-1794 European Commerce and Trade Treaties

1795-1799 Mediterranean Amity and Peace Treaties

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Passports by country.

Articles of Foreign Transit

Maritime Navigation & Trade

Origins of Passport

• Goldfarb, Phil (2014). "A Page of History: Passport Applications 1851-1914". Tate Publishing & Enterprises LLC. ISBN 978-1632682376. OCLC 880966971.
• Robertson, Craig (2010). "The Passport in America: The History of a Document". Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0199779895. OCLC 768548553.
• Lloyd, Martin (2003). "The Passport: The History of Man's Most Travelled Document". Stroud, Gloucestershire: Sutton Publishing. ISBN 978-0750929646. OCLC 59329531.
• Salter, Mark B. (2003). "Rights of Passage: The Passport in International Relations". Lynne Rienner Publishers. ISBN 978-1588261458. OCLC 51518371.
• Torpey, John (2000). "The Invention of the Passport: Surveillance, Citizenship and the State". Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521634939. OCLC 41387626.
• Potter, Dorothy Williams (1990). "Passports of Southeastern Pioneers, 1770-1823: Indian, Spanish and Other Land Passports for Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, Mississippi, Virginia, North and South Carolina". Genealogical Publishing Company. ISBN 978-0806312729. OCLC 21376809.
• United States Department of State (1898). "The American Passport: Its History and a Digest of Laws, Rulings and Regulations Governing Its Issuance by the Department of State". U.S. Government Printing Office. OCLC 3836079.

• Richard Montgomery, Continental Army (November 12, 1775). "Articles of Capitulation ~ Citizens and Inhabitants of Montreal". Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789. United States Library of Congress. LCCN 90898002.
• John Adams (September 17, 1776). "The Model Treaty, 1776". Office of the Historian. Washington, D.C.: United States Department of State.
• Benjamin Franklin (March 10, 1779). "To All Captains and Commanders of American Armed Ships". Founders Online. U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
• "Signed Passport by Benedict Arnold". Manhattan, New York: Doyle New York. April 19, 1779.
• Confederation Congress (May 2, 1780). "Instructions to the Captains and Commanders of Private Armed Vessels". Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789. United States Library of Congress. LCCN 90898062.
• Confederation Congress (March 27, 1781). "An Ordinance - Capture and Condemnation of Prizes". Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789. United States Library of Congress. LCCN 90898065.
• Confederation Congress (April 7, 1781). "Instructions be Observed by the Captains or Commanders of Private Armed Vessels". Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789. United States Library of Congress. LCCN 90898104.
• Confederation Congress (December 4, 1781). "An Ordinance - Captures On Water Shall Be Lawful". Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789. United States Library of Congress. LCCN 90898114.
• Confederation Congress (February 12, 1788). "Minister Plenipotentiary Sea Letters for Courts of London and the Hague". Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789. 34 (Tuesday, February 12, 1788): 39–41.
• Blunt, Joseph (1832). "The Merchants and Shipmaster's Assistant". Internet Archive. E. & G. W. Blunt. OCLC 1026917020.
• United States Department of State (1898). "The American Passport: Its History and a Digest of Laws, Rulings and Regulations Governing Its Issuance by the Department of State". Internet Archive. U.S. Government Printing Office.
• "Honorary Citizenship of Sir Winston Churchill ~ P.L. 88-6". 77 Stat. 5 ~ H.R. 4374. U.S. Government Publishing Office. April 9, 1963.
• United States Passport Office (1985). "Passport Applications, 1795-1905". Internet Archive. U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
• Torpey, John C. (2000). "The Invention of the Passport: Surveillance, Citizenship, and the State". Internet Archive. Cambridge University Press. OCLC 41387626.
• Robertson, Craig (February 7, 2017). "How the Passport Became an Improbable Symbol of American Identity". Smithsonian.com.
• Pines, Giulia (May 16, 2017). "The Contentious History of the Passport". Travel. National Geographic Society.
• "Maritime Artifacts and Framed Ships' Passports/Sea Letters". Richard J. Dodson Maritime Art Collection Exhibit. Louisiana State University ~ Paul M. Hebert Law Center.