Public Acts of Congress.

and any stockholder, by a written authority, under his or her hand, and executed in the presence of two witnesses, may depute any other stockholder to vote and act as proxy for him or her at any general meeting.

liable to be attached or taken by fieri facias, to satisfy the debts due from any such individual, in like manner as other personal property may be.

SEC. 11. And be it further enacted, That there shall be a general meeting of the stockholders on SEC. 5. And be it further enacted, That the said the first Monday in June, and the first Monday president and directors, so elected, and their suc- in December, in every year, in the City of Washcessors, shall be, and they are hereby, authorizedington, to which meeting the president and diand empowered to agree with any person or per- rectors shall make a report, and render distinct sons, on behalf of said company, to cut the canal, and just accounts of all their proceedings; and as laid down on the plan of the City of Washing-on finding them justly and fairly stated, the stockton, erect such locks, and perform such other works, as they shall judge necessary for opening the canal aforesaid, and the forks thereof; and out of the moneys arising from subscriptions, wharfage, and tolls, to pay for the same; and to repair and improve the said canal, locks, and other works necessary thereto, and to defray all incidental charges, and also to appoint a treasurer, clerk, and such other officers, toll-gatherers, managers, and servants, as they shall judge requisite, and to settle their respective wages.

holders then present or a majority of them, shall give a certificate thereof; and at such half yearly general meetings, after leaving in the hands of the treasurer such sum as shall be judged necessary for repairs, improvements, or contingent charges, an equal dividend of all the net profits arising from the wharfage and tolls hereby granted shall be ordered, and made to and among all the stockholders of the said company, in proportion to their several shares: Provided, That if the net profits shall, in any year, exceed fifteen per centum on SEC. 6. And be it further enacted, That the trea- the sum actually expended by the said company, surer of the said company shall, before he acts as in opening the said canal, and completing the such, give bond to the company in such penalty, same, the fifteen per centum only of the net profits and with such security, as the said president and shall be divided among the stockholders, and the directors shall direct, conditioned for the faith-excess shall be paid to the Mayor and City Counful performance of the duties of his office. cil of the City of Washington, for the use of the said city.

SEC. 7. And be it further enacted, That the said president and directors, so elected, and their suc- SEC. 12. And be it further enacted, That, for cessors, shall have full power and authority to and in consideration of the expenses the said demand and receive of the stockholders, in equal stockholders shall incur in cutting the canal, erectproportions, the remaining nine-tenths of the ing locks, and in maintaining and keeping the shares, from time to time, as they shall judge ne- same in repair, and in the enlargement and imcessary; and if any of the stockholders shall neg-provement of the same, the said company is hereby lect or refuse to pay their proportions, within one authorized to collect on all articles and materials month after the same shall have been ordered, landed on each side of the canal, from on board the share or shares of such defaulter shall be for- any boat or scow, or placed on either side of the feited: Provided, That notice shall be given, by said canal, for the purpose of being taken thereadvertisement, in one of the newspapers printed from by any boat or scow, according to such rates in Washington, Georgetown, and Alexandria, of as the president and directors may, from time to the time when the same shall be ordered to be paid. time, by their by-laws, order and direct: ProSEC. 8. And be it further enacted, That the said vided, That the said rates shall, at no time herecompany shall not begin to collect wharfage or after, and in no particular, exceed the rates which tolls, until the canal is made navigable for boats are, or may be, established by the owners of and scows drawing three feet water to pass through wharves in the City of Washington. And it shall the same, from the Potomac river to the Eastern and may be lawful for the said company to deBranch thereof: and if at any time the said canal mand and receive, at the most convenient place, shall become obstructed, so that boats and scows for all articles carried through the said canal, tolls drawing three feet water cannot pass through the not exceeding the following rates, that is to say: same, from the Potomac river, to the Eastern for each unloaded boat or scow, twenty-five cents; Branch thereof, it shall not be lawful for the said for each barrel of flour, two cents; for each barrel company to collect any wharfage or tolls, until of beef or pork, two cents; for each barrel of such obstruction shall have been removed. whiskey or brandy, three cents; for each hogshead or pipe, six cents; and upon all other articles, packages, and commodities, one-sixth part of the amount of tolls allowed by law to be received by the Potomac Company, at the Great Falls of the river Potomac. And the said company shall also have the exclusive right to establish a packet-boat or boats upon the said canal for carrying passengers, and no other packet-boat or boats, but such as are established or permitted by them, shall be allowed to carry passengers through the same for hire.

SEC. 9. And be it further enacted, That every president and director, before he acts as such, shall take an oath or affirmation that he will well and faithfully discharge the duties of his office; and any four of the directors, with the president, shall constitute a quorum for transacting any business of the company.

SEC. 10. And be it further enacted, That the shares in the said company shall be deemed personal and not real property, and transferable in such manner as the company shall direct, and that the shares held by any individual shall be

SEC. 13. Provided always, and be it further en

Public Acts of Congress.

acted, That all public property shall pass through the said canal free of toll, and also, that in case the said canal and one of the forks thereof shall not be completed within the term of seven years from the passage of this act, in such manner as to admit boats and scows drawing three feet water to pass through the same, that the said canal shall revert to the United States, and all right and authority hereby granted to the said company shall cease and determine.

SEC. 14. And be it further enacted, That the said company shall, from time to time, whenever the Mayor and City Council shall order and direct, suffer bridges to be erected across the canal, and shall suffer the same when erected to be repaired: Provided, That every bridge so erected, shall be at least six feet above high water mark. SEC. 15. And be it further enacted, That the President and Directors of said company, after the said canal shall be opened and made passable for boats and scows drawing three feet of water, shall annually, in the month of January, lay before the Congress of the United States, a just and true account of their receipts and expenditures, with a statement of the clear profits thereof.

Approved, February 16, 1809.

allowed by the act of the twenty-first day of April, one thousand eight hundred and six, thirteen thousand five hundred and sixty dollars.

For the incidental and contingent expenses of the said department, four thousand two hundred dollars.

For printing and distributing the laws of the second session of the tenth Congress, and printing the laws in newspapers, eight thousand two hundred and fifty dollars.

For special messengers charged with despatches, two thousand dollars.

For compensation to the Secretary of the Treasury, clerks, and persons employed in his office, including the sum of one thousand dollars, for clerk hire, in addition to the sum allowed by the act of the twenty-first April, one thousand eight hundred and six, sixteen thousand seven hundred dollars.

For the expense of translating foreign languages. allowance to the person employed in transmitting passports and sea-letters, and for stationery_and printing in the office of the Secretary of the Treasury, one thousand dollars.

For compensation to the Comptroller of the Treasury, clerks, and persons employed in his office, including the sum of one thousand six bundred and thirty-nine dollars, for compensation to his clerks, in addition to the sum allowed by the act of the twenty-first April, one thousand eight hundred and six, fourteen thousand six hundred and sixteen dollars.

For expense of stationery, printing and incidental and contingent expenses of the Comptroller's office, eight hundred dollars.

Be it enacted, &c., That for the expenditure of the civil list in the present year, including the contingent expenses of the several Departments and offices; for the compensation of the several loan officers and their clerks, and for books and For compensation to the Auditor of the Treastationery for the same; for the payment of an-sury, clerks, and persons employed in his office, nuities and grants; for the support of the Mint twelve thousand two hundred and twenty-one Establishment; for the expenses of intercourse dollars. with foreign nations; for the support of lighthouses, beacons, buoys, and public piers; for defraying the expenses of surveying the public lands; and for satisfying certain miscellaneous claims; the following sums be, and the same hereby are, respectively appropriated, that it to say:

For expense of stationery, printing, and incidental and contingent expenses of the Auditor's office, five hundred dollars.

For compensation to the Treasurer, clerks, and persons employed in his office, six thousand two hundred and twenty-seven dollars and forty-five cents.

For compensation granted by law to the members of the Senate and House of Representatives, For expense of stationery, printing, and incitheir officers and attendants, estimated for a session dental and contingent expenses in the Treasurer's of four months and a half continuance, two hun-office, three hundred dollars. dred and one thousand, four hundred and twentyfive dollars.

For the expense of fire-wood, stationery, printing, and all other contingent expenses of the two Houses of Congress, twenty-eight thousand dollars.

For all contingent expenses of the library of Congress, and for the librarian's allowance for the year one thousand eight hundred and nine, eight hundred dollars.

For compensation to the President and VicePresident of the United States, thirty thousand dollars.

For compensation to the Secretary of State, clerks, and persons employed in that department, including the sum of one thousand dollars for compensations to his clerks, in addition to the sum

For compensation to the Register of the Treasury, clerks and persons employed in his office, sixteen thousand and fifty-two dollars and two cents.

For expense of stationery, printing, and all other incidental and contingent expenses in the Register's office, including books for the public stocks, and for the arrangement of the marine records, two thousand eight hundred dollars.

For fuel, and other contingent and incidental expenses of the Treasury Department, four thousand dollars.

For defraying the expense of printing and stating the public accounts for the year one thousand eight hundred and nine, one thousand two hundred dollars.

For the purchase of books, maps and charts, for

Public Acts of Congress.

Public Acts of Congress.

For expense of stationery, office rent, and other contingent expenses of said Territory, three hundred and fifty dollars.

of a former appropriation for these objects carried to the "surplus fund," and the further sum of five thousand seven hundred dollars, in addition to the appropriations heretofore made for the same objects.

For the discharge of such demands against the United States, on account of the civil department, not otherwise provided for, as shall have been For placing buoys and beacons on or near the admitted in a due course of settlement at the Trea-shoals and rocks in the channel leading into the sury, two thousand dollars.

For additional compensation to the clerks in the several Departments of State, Treasury, War, and Navy, and of the General Post Office, not exceeding, for each Department respectively, fifteen per centum, in addition to the sums allowed by the act, entitled "An act to regulate and fix the compensation of clerks, and to authorize the laying out certain public roads, and for other purposes," thirteen thousand two hundred and sixtynine dollars and thirty-three cents.

harbor of Salem, in the State of Massachusetts, in addition to the sums heretofore appropriated for that purpose, sixty-seven dollars and twentynine cents.

For rebuilding two light-houses on Plumb Island, in the State of Massachusetts, ten thousand dollars.

For defraying the expenses of surveying the public land, within the several Territories of the United States, eighteen thousand two hundred and forty dollars.

For compensation, granted by law, to the Chief For expenses of the boards formed in the TerJustice, the Associate Judges, and District Judges, ritories of Orleans and Louisiana, for investigatof the United States, including the chief justice ing and adjusting titles and claims to land, in adand two associate judges for the District of Co-dition to the sum heretofore appropriated for that lumbia, to the Attorney General and to the dis-object, ten thousand dollars. trict judge of the Territory of Orleans, fifty-nine thousand four hundred dollars.

For the like compensation granted to the several District Attorneys of the United States, three thousand four hundred dollars.

For the expense of taking the second Census of the United States, being the balance of a former appropriation for that object, and carried to the surplus fund, thirteen thousand eight hundred and ninety dollars and ninety-six cents. For compensations granted to the Marshals For the expense of returning the votes of Presfor the Districts of Maine, New Hampshire, Ver-ident and Vice President of the United States, mont, New Jersey, North Carolina, Kentucky, for the term commencing on the fourth day of Ohio, East and West Tennessee, and Orleans, in- March, one thousand eight hundred and nine, cluding the compensation allowed to the Mar- one thousand five hundred and ninety-three dolshals of New Jersey and North Carolina, for the lars. three last quarters of the year one thousand eight For expenses of intercourse with foreign nahundred and eight, by the act of the twenty-tions, thirty-three thousand and fifty dollars. fifth of February, one thousand eight hundred and eight, two thousand six hundred and fifty dollars.

For defraying the expenses of the Supreme, Circuit, and District Courts, of the United States, including the District of Columbia, and of jurors and witnesses, in aid of the funds arising from fines, forfeitures, and penalties, and for defraying the expenses of prosecutions for offences against the United States, and for the safe-keeping of prisoners, forty thousand dollars.

For the payment of sundry pensions granted by the late Government, nine hundred and sixty dollars.

For the contingent expenses of intercourse with foreign nations, seventy-five thousand dollars. For the expenses of intercourse with the Barbary Powers, fifty thousand dollars.

For the contingent expenses of intercourse with the Barbary Powers, fifty thousand dollars. For the relief and protection of distressed American seamen, five thousand dollars.

For the expenses of prosecuting claims in relation to captures, six thousand dollars.

For defraying the expenses of regulating, laying out, and making a road from Cumberland, in the State of Maryland, to the State of Ohio, agreeably to an act of Congress, passed the twentyninth day of March, one thousand eight hundred and six, the balance of a former appropriation made by the aforesaid act, for that object, having been carried to the surplus fund, sixteen thousand

For the payment of the annual allowance to the invalid pensioners of the United States, from the fifth of March, one thousand eight hundred and nine, to the fourth day of March, one thousand eight hundred and ten, ninety-eight thou-and seventy-five dollars and fifteen cents. sand dollars.

For the maintenance and support of lighthouses, beacons, buoys, and public piers, stakeages of channels, bars, and shoals, and certain contingent expenses, seventy-nine thousand and thirty-nine dollars and forty cents.

For erecting two light-houses on Long Island Sound, one on Watchhill point, and the other on Sand's or Watch point, the following sums, that it is to say the sum of two thousand six hundred and thirty-seven dollars and fifty cents, balance

For defraying the expense of opening a road from the frontier of Georgia, on the route from Athens to New Orleans, till the same intersects the thirty-first degree of north latitude, agreeably to an act of Congress, passed on the twenty-first day of April, one thousand eight hundred and six, the balance of a former appropriation for that object having been carried to the surplus fund, two thousand four hundred dollars, and a further sum of five thousand dollars, in addition to the sums heretofore appropriated for that object.

Public Acts of Congress.

For defraying the expense of opening a road or and no longer; anything in the ordinance for the roads through the territory lately ceded by the government of the said Territory to the contrary Indians to the United States, from the Mississip- notwithstanding. pi to the Ohio, and to the former Indian boundary line, which was established by the Treaty of Greenville, agreeably to the last above recited act; the balance of a former appropriation made for that object having been carried to the surplus fund, one thousand eight hundred dollars and forty-eight cents.

For defraying the expense of opening a road from Nashville, in the State of Tennessee, to Natchez, in the Mississippi Territory, agreeably to the aforesaid act of the twenty-first day of April, one thousand eight hundred and six, the balance of a former appropriation for that object having been carried to the surplus fund, three thousand dollars.

For the discharge of such miscellaneous claims against the United States, not otherwise provided for, as shall have been admitted, in due course of settlement, at the Treasury, four thousand dollars.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That the several appropriations herein before made, shall be paid and discharged out of the fund of six hundred thousand dollars, reserved by an act making provision for the debt of the United States, and out of any moneys in the Treasury, not otherwise appropriated.

Approved, February 17, 1809.

An Act extending the right of suffrage in the Indiana
Territory, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted, &c., That the citizens of the Indiana Territory entitled to vote for Representatives to the General Assembly thereof, shall, at the time of electing their Representatives to the said General Assembly, also elect one Delegate from the said Territory to the Congress of the United States, who shall possess the same powers heretofore granted to the Delegates from the several Territories of the United States, anything in the ordinance for the government of the said Territory to the contrary notwithstanding.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That the sheriffs of the several counties, which now are, or may hereafter be established in the said Territory, respectively, shall, within forty days next after an election for a Delegate to Congress transmit to the Secretary of the Territory a certified copy of the returns from the several townships in their counties respectively. And it shall be the duty of the Governor, for the time being, to give to the person having the greatest number of votes, a certificate of his election.

SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That, so soon as the Governor of the said Territory shall divide the same into five districts, the citizens thereof entitled to vote for Representatives to the said General Assembly, shall, in each of the said districts, elect one member of the Legislative Council, who shall possess the same powers heretofore granted to the Legislative Council in the said Territory, and shall hold their offices four years,

SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That the General Assembly of the said Territory shall have power to apportion the Representatives of the several counties therein, or which may hereafter be established therein, according to the number of free white male inhabitants above the age of twenty-one years, in such counties; Provided, that there be not more than twelve, nor less than nine, of the whole number of Representatives, any act or acts to the contrary notwithstanding, until there shall be six thousand free male white inhabitants, above the age of twenty-one years, in said Territory; after which time, the number of Representatives shall be regulated agreeably to the ordinance for the government thereof. Approved, February 27, 1809.

An Act freeing from postage all letters and packets to

Thomas Jefferson.

to Thomas Jefferson, now President of the United Be it enacted, &c., That all letters and packets States, after the expiration of his term of office and during his life, shall be carried by the mail, free of postage.

Approved, February 28, 1809.

An Act for the disposal of certain tracts of land in the Mississippi Territory, claimed under Spanish grants, reported by the Land Commissioners as antedated, and to confirm the claims of Abraham Ellis and Daniel Harregal.

Be it enacted, &c., That the several tracts of land in the Mississippi Territory, the titles to which have been derived under Spanish claims, and which have been disallowed by the Boards of Commissioners east and west of Pearl_river, on suspicion of the grants, warrants, or orders of survey, on which the claims are grounded, being antedated, or otherwise fraudulent, and which are embraced in the report of the said Boards of Commissioners, laid before Congress, agreeably to the third section of an act, entitled, "An act supplementary to the act, entitled an act regulating the grants of land, and providing for the disposal of the lands of the United States south of the State of Tennessee," shall be, and the same are hereby directed to be sold, in the same manner, at the same price, and on the same terms and conditions as have been, or may be by law provided for the sale of the other public lands in the said Territory; and any person or persons claiming under a Spanish grant, warrant, or order of survey, as aforesaid, shall be entitled to institute, in the highest court of law or equity in the said Territory, his or their suit or action for the recovery of the tract or tracts so claimed as aforesaid: Provided, such claimant or claimants shall institute his or their suit or action within the term of one year from and after the tract or tracts so claimed shall have been sold by the United States; or, in case the same is now inhabited and cultivated in virtue of a pre-emption right, within one year from