9 John G. Stephenson, of the State of Indiana; Clark E. Carr, of the State of Illinois; W. Y. Selleck, of the State of Wisconsin; Thomas White Ferry, of the State of Michigan; of the State Minnesota, being one Commissioner from each State, having soldiers buried in said Cemetery, be and they and their successors are hereby created a body politic in law, under the name, style and title of the SOLDIERS' NATIONAL CEMETERY, and by that name, style and title shall have perpetual succession, and be able and capable in law to have and use a common seal, to sue and be sued, plead and be impleaded, in all courts of law and equity, and to do all such other things as are incident to a corporation. SECTION 3. The care and management of the grounds referred to in the preamble and first section of this act, are hereby entrusted solely to the commissioners named in the second section of the same, and those hereafter appointed to represent the States therein named, and their successors in office; the said commissioners shall constitute a board of managers, whose duty it shall be, out of funds that may be in the hands of the treasurer of the corporation, by State appropriations, or otherwise, to remove the remains of all the soldiers referred to in the first section of this act, that have not already been removed to the Cemetery, and have them properly interred therein; and, also, to lay out, fence and ornament, to divide and arrange into suitable plots and burial lots, establish carriage ways, avenues and foot-ways, erect buildings, and a monument, or monuments, and suitable marks to designate the graves, and generally to do all other things in their judgment necessary and proper to be done to adapt the ground and premises to the uses for which it has been purchased and set apart. SECTION 4. The business of the corporation shall be conducted by the commissioners aforesaid, and their successors in office; the said commissioners shall meet within sixty days after the passage of this act, and organize by electing one of their number president; they shall also appoint a secretary and treasurer, and shall have power to employ such other officers and agents as may be needful; they shall require of the treasurer to enter into bonds, to the corporation, in double the probable amount of money that may be in his hands at any one time during his term of office, with two or more sufficient sureties, conditioned for the faithful discharge of his duties, and the correct accounting for and paying over of the money; which said bond or bonds, shall be approved by the court of common pleas of Adams county, and recorded in the office of the recorder of deeds in and for said county; the term of office of the officers of the board of commissioners aforesaid shall expire on the first day of January, of each and every year, or as soon thereafter as their successors may be duly chosen and qualified to act. SECTION, 5. At the first meeting of the commissioners heretofore named, they shall be divided, by lot, into three classes, and the term of office of the first class shall expire on the first day of January, Anno Domini one thousand eight hundred and sixty-five; the second class, on the first day of January, Anno Domini one thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, and the third class on the first day of January, Anno Domini one thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven; the vacancies thus occurring shall be filled by the Governors of the States which the said commissioners represented; and the persons thus appointed to fill such vacancies, shall hold their office, as commissioners aforesaid, for the term of three years. In case of the neglect, or failure, of the Governor of any State, having burial lots in the Cemetery, to fill such vacancy, the board of commissioners may supply the place by appointing a citizen of the particular State which is not represented in the board by reason of such vacancy; any vacancies not yet filled, or hereafter occurring, in the board of commissioners, by death, resignation, or otherwise, shall be filled, by appointment, for the unexpired term, by the Governor of the State which the person represented, or in case of failure by such Governor to make said appointment, then the place shall be supplied as last above indicated; such other States of the Union, not having burial lots in said Ceme ery, but that may at any time hereafter desire to be represented in this corporation, shall have the privilege of nominating a commissioner to represent them severally in the board of commissioners, and thereafter pay their proportionate share of the expense of maintaining said Cemetery. SECTION 6. The board of commissioners shall annually, at the end of each fiscal year, make a report of the condition and management of the Cemetery; which report shall contain a detailed statement of the receipts and expenditures of the corporation, and a copy thereof shall be forwarded to the Governor of each State represented in the corporation. The expenses incident to the removal of the dead, the enclosing and ornamenting the Cemetery, and all the work connected therewith, and its future maintenance, shall be apportioned among the States connecting themselves with the corporation, according to their population, as indicated by their representation in the House of Representatives of the United States. SECTION 7. The board of commissioners shall adopt such by-laws, rules and regulations, as they may deem necessary for their meetings and government, and for the government of their officers, agents and employés, and for the care and protection of the cemetery grounds, and the property of the corporation: Provided, Said by-laws, rules and regulations be not inconsistent with the Constitution and laws of the United States, the Constitution and laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and this act of incorporation. SECTION 8. The board of commissioners shall have no power to appropriate any of the funds of the corporation as a compensation for their services as commissioners. SECTION 9. The grounds and property of said Cemetery shall be forever free from the levy of any State, county, or municipal taxes; and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania hereby releases, and exempts, the corporation created by this act of Assembly, from the payment of any enrollment tax, or any tax, or taxes, whatever, that might be imposed by existing laws; all the laws of this Commonwealth now in force, or which may hereafter be enacted, for the protection of cemeteries, burial grounds, and places of sepulture, shall apply with full force and effect to the SOLDIERS' NATIONAL CEMETERY, hereby incorporated, immediately from and after the passage of this act. SECTION 10. The corporation of the SOLDIERS' NATIONAL CEMETERY shall have power to receive appropriations from the United States, and from the State Legislatures, and also devises, and bequests, gifts, annuities, and all other kinds of property, real and personal, for the purposes of the burial of the dead, enclosing and ornamenting the grounds, and maintaining the same, and erecting a monument, or monuments, therein. four. HENRY C. JOHNSON, Speaker of the House of Representatives. APPROVED-The twenty-fifth day of March, Anno Domini one thousand eight hundred and sixty- COMMISSIONERS OF THE STATES AND THE BOARD OF MANAGERS. The following were the Commissioners of the States composing the first Board The following changes were subsequently made by the retirement of the first Commissioners :— Robert H. McCurdy, Esq., was appointed from New York in 1865. At the first meeting for the organization of the Board of Trustees, held at Gettysburg, April 6th, 1864, the following officers were chosen : David Wills, of Gettysburg, President. * At this meeting the executive committee elected were John R. Latimer, of Delaware; Benjamin Deford, of Maryland; and Levi Scobey, of New Jersey. On the death of Mr. Latimer, Robert H. McCurdy, of New York, was elected in his place; and Mr. Selleck, of Wisconsin, and Mr. Edwards, of Massachusetts, added to the committee. The executive committee so constituted continued, without change, until the completion of the` monument and the surrender of the Cemetery to the United States. Executive Committee. Robert H. McCurdy, of New York. Benjamin Deford, of Maryland. Wm. Y. Selleck, of Wisconsin. Auditing Committee. Henry Edwards, of Massachusetts. John R. Bartlett, of Rhode Island. Levi Scobey, of New Jersey. Henry Edwards, of Massachusetts. Proposals having been invited for designs and estimates for a monument, to be erected within the Cemetery, to the memory of the soldiers who fell in the battles of Gettysburg, through advertisements in newspapers published in New York, Philadelphia, Cincinnati and Boston, a number were submitted. The Trustees, after mature deliberation, gave the preference to that submitted by J. G. Batterson, of Hartford, the plan being for a shaft of granite, with figures of white marble on the four buttresses, and a figure of the same material on the summit of the monument. The Trustees having determined to enclose the Cemetery grounds with a substantial stone wall, with an iron fence in front, an imposing gateway of granite, a lodge for the keeper, and with headstones to each of the graves, it was found that a sum much larger than that originally anticipated would be necessary. The desire of the Trustees for additional appropriations, upon being made known to the several loyal States, was promptly responded to by them, and the amount required placed at the disposal of the Trustees. CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE SEVERAL STATES. The following were the total apportionments made by the Board of Trustees to the several States having dead buried in the Cemetery, the respective sums being in the ratio of their representation in the Congress of the United States, were paid as follows, viz. : 66 THE CEMETERY AND GROUNDS ADJACENT. The Cemetery grounds embrace seventeen acres of land, on what is known as Cemetery Hill," on the west side of the Baltimore turnpike, and adjoining the local burial-ground. It is that on which the centre of our line of battle rested on the second and third days of July, and the most prominent and important position on the whole battle-field. These grounds have been tastefully laid out with walks and lawns by Mr. William Saunders, landscape gardener, of Washington, and planted with trees and shrubs. In the middle and broadest portion is the Cemetery proper; a semi-circle, within which the bodies of the fallen soldiers are interred, and in the centre of which stands the monument, separated by a low belt of shrubbery, from the graves. The head-stones to the graves are all alike, and form a continuous line of granite blocks, rising nine inches above the ground, showing a face or width of eight inches on their upper surface. The name, company and regiment of cach soldier is sculptured on the head-stones, thus securing a simple and expressive arrangement, combined with great durability. A plan of the grounds will be found in the volume, by a reference to which, the exact position of the several State lots will be seen. The entrance to the Cemetery grounds is on the Baltimore turnpike, through a large iron gateway, appropriately ornamented, with an iron fence the whole length of the front. The division line between the soldiers' and the local cemetery is simply a low iron fence, the remainder being enclosed by a substantial stone wall, surmounted with a heaving capping. On the right of the gateway a lodge has been erected for the keeper of the Cemetery. The interments in the Soldiers' National Cemetery are as follows: |