CIRCULARS CONSTITUTION AND BY-LAWS1 OF THE UNION COLONY, No. 1, ORGANIZED IN NEW YORK, December 23, 1869. RICHMOND FISK, Hoosick Falls, N. Y. ARTHUR MURPHY, No. 157 Adams Street, Brooklyn. LOCATING COMMITTEE: N. C. MEEKER. W. C. FISK, Toledo, Ohio. AUDITING COMMITTEE: The object of the above-named Colony shall be to settle on Government or other cheap land in the West, to the end that men may engage in various industries and pursuits, and that they may have homes of their own, and that schools and churches may be convenient. 1A printed circular. Loaned to the editor by Mr. Henry T. West. This is the first constitution of the colony and was adopted in New York. ARTICLE I. The officers shall be a President, Vice-President, Treasurer and Executive Committee, appointed by the Colony in session, and a Committee of Location, an Auditing Committee and a Secretary, appointed by the Executive Committee. The duties of the various officers shall be the same as belong to other organized bodies. ART. II. The Secretary shall receive such compensation as the Executive Committee shall hereafter provide, and the Auditing Committee shall examine the accounts and report monthly to the Colony. ART III. The Locating Committee shall select, with their best judgment, a location suitable for the settlement of the Colony. ART. IV. The President shall represent the Colony, and always act under its direction, when practicable, and shall report his actions at each meeting of the Executive Committee. ART. V. Terms of office are to continue until successors are appointed, unless removals are required on account of incompetence or misconduct; and during the interim of Colony meetings, removals may be made by the Executive Committee. ART. VI. The Executive Committee shall make such rules and regulations, and inaugurate such measures as shall result in attaining, in the best manner, the object for which the Colony is organized. ART. VII. Persons wishing to become members, must be temperance men, and of good moral character, and they must pay an initiation fee of $5 to the Treasurer; also pay to the Treasurer, Hon. Horace Greeley, Tribune Office, New York, $150, on or before the 1st of March, 1870. ART. VIII. When the Locating Committee shall have found a suitable locality for the Colony, they shall report the same to the Executive Committee, who shall order the Treasurer to purchase the same with funds on hand belonging to the members, and take a deed for the land in trust for the Colony. Afterward the Treasurer shall deed designated parcels of land to the several members, as the Executive Committee shall direct, and such deeds shall be executed whenever a member in good faith enters upon his land, particularly village property, to make im provements agreeably to the object for which the Colony is established. If members neglect to make such improvements within one year, no deed shall be given, and the amount paid in shall be refunded with seven per cent. interest, and the land shall be deeded to such a one as shall make the improvements, with the approval of the Executive Committee. ART. IX. After the land shall be vested with the Treasurer in trust, the Executive Committee shall proceed to lay out four quarter sections, or 640 acres, located centrally, or most conveniently, into blocks of ten acres each, and these shall be divided into lots from half an acre to one acre and a quarter each, for residences and to form a village, but a portion of the lots may be from three to five acres each. In the centre, or conveniently, a plaza or square of ten acres shall be laid out for the business portion of the town, and grounds shall be reserved for a park, not exceeding fifty acres. ART. X. The lots so laid out shall be sold to the various members, ranging from $25 to $50 each, and the proceeds therefrom shall be devoted to the building of a school-house and a town-hall, and to the establishment of a reading-room and library, free to all members, and to other necessary improvements for the common welfare. Lots are to be held in reserve for sale at advanced prices to such as may wish to join after the Colony lands are occupied. ART. XI. The land adjoining the town plot may be divided into lots of 5, 10, 40 or 80 acres, according to their distance from the town centre, and deeded to the members as they may choose; and additional lots at greater distances may also be selected by them, so that the aggregate value may be equal to the value of a quarter section on the outer line of the Colonial property, of which members may have, each, one undivided quarter section, but no more, with the exception of lots in the village of one acre and a quarter, one to each, and each member may make his own selection. ART. XII. Five half-acre lots in the village shall be reserved for church purposes, which shall be free to such denominations of Christians as may choose to build thereon. ART. XIII. The object of this Colony being as above |