DudleySmith
Diamond Member
- Dec 21, 2020
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Rohit Singla The Vaccine Act of 1813
I. Introduction
In February 1813 Congress handily passed and the President enthusiastically
signed’ a piece of ground-breaking legislation which has been long overlooked
by legal historians—An Act to Encourage Vaccination. 2 The Act established
a national source for uncontaminated, smallpox vaccine. Without any textual
basis in the Constitution, Congress mandated that a Presidentially appointed
National Vaccine Agent preserve supplies of genuine vaccine matter and furnish
the same to any citizen of the United States, whenever it might be applied
for.3 Congress subsidized the distribution of vaccine through a valuable franking
privilege, providing free postage to and from the Vaccine Agent.4 The Act was
passed at the urging of a crusading Baltimore physician, Dr. James Smith who
was immediately appointed the first National Vaccine Agent.5
By all accounts, the 1813 Act was the first federal government program
in our nation’s history designed to improve the health and well-being of the
general populace.6 Smallpox was among the most feared diseases of the 19th
century, and the discovery of vaccination in 1798 was widely hailed as a near
miraculous medical breakthrough.7 In passing the Act, Congress quickly stepped
into the moral and social controversies over vaccination8 and clearly endorsed
its practice.
Repealed 9 years later, but this a good essay on its history and legal precedents it created.
