&c. lic buildings, or other officer having charge and authority over the missioner of publands and property of the United States lying within the city of Wash- lic buildings as to the public land ington, shall from time to time cause to be opened and improved such in Washington, avenues and streets, or parts or portions thereof, as the President of and opening the United States, upon application of the corporation of the said streets, avenues, city, shall deem necessary for the public convenience, and direct to be done; and he shall defray the expenses thereof out of any money arising, or which shall have arisen, from the sale of lots in the city of Washington, belonging, or which may have belonged, to the United States, and from no other fund. And it shall be the duty of the said commissioner, or other United States officer, as aforesaid, upon the application of the mayor, to repair and keep in repair the pavements, watergutters, water-ways and flag foot-ways which have been made or shall be made opposite or along the public squares, reservations, or other property belonging to the United States; as also, on like application, to repair and keep in repair such streets and avenues, or parts thereof, as may have been, or shall hereafter be, opened and improved by the United States; the expense of all such repairs to be paid out of the fund before mentioned. SEC. 13. And be it further enacted, That the commissioner of Commissioner public buildings be, and he is hereby, required to perform the duties of public buildings to perform required of the city commissioner by the fourteenth section of the act the duties preof the twenty-sixth of May, eighteen hundred and twenty-four, supple- scribed in act of mentary to the act of the fifteenth of May, eighteen hundred and 1824, ch. 195. twenty, incorporating the inhabitants of the city of Washington. And it shall be the duty of the commissioner of public buildings, within ninety days after the sale of any lots or squares belonging to the United States in the city of Washington, to report the fact to the corTo report sales poration of Washington, giving the date of sale, the number of the lot of public lands and square, the name of the purchaser or purchasers, and the said lots or squares shall be liable to taxation by the said corporation from the date of such sale. And no open space, public reservation, or other public ground in the said city, shall be occupied by any private person, or for any private purposes whatever. SEC. 14. And be it further enacted, That the justices of the peace, whether they be members of the Board of Aldermen or Board of Com mon Council or not, who may be selected from time to time by the said corporation, to enforce the police regulations and penal laws of the said city, as also to issue warrants and to hear and determine cases within the jurisdiction of justices of the peace, in which the mayor, Board of Aldermen and Board of Common Council of the said city shall be plaintiffs, shall have power to issue all such warrants, and all other warrants or processes deemed necessary and proper in cases of violations of the police regulations and penal laws of the corporation, and to hear and determine all such cases, and under the orders of the corporation to issue execution or other final process thereon; and the said justices shall also have power to compel the attendance of witnesses by attachment, and to punish them by fine not exceeding ten dollars, or by imprisonment not exceeding ten days, for refusing obedi ence to a summons. shall which thereupon be liable to taxation Jurisdiction of Justices of the the peace. peace. SEC. 15. And be it further enacted, That hereafter the justices of Term of office the peace for the county of Washington, in the District of Columbia, and removal o shall be appointed for three years; and upon indictment and convic- justices of the tion of any justice of the peace, before any court of competent jurisdiction, of incompetency, habitual drunkenness, corruption in office, or of any other wilful misconduct in the discharge of his duties as justice of the peace, his commission shall be void, and he shall cease to exercise the office and powers of justice of the peace; and for all criminal process or business issued or tried by or before any justice of the Fees of justices of the peace and constables. Four members Court. peace in the city and county of Washington, in the District of Columbia, the said justice and the constable who shall execute the process shall respectively be entitled to charge and receive the same fees as are authorized to be charged and received in the case of process issued and served by them respectively in cases of small debts; and the said costs shall be certified by the said justices to the District attorney, for his revision and approval, and when approved shall be paid by the marshal of the District of Columbia. SEC. 16. And be it further enacted, That, in addition to the seven added to the Levy members now authorized to be appointed to the Levy Court of the county of Washington, from and after May, eighteen hundred and forty-eight, the President of the United States is hereby authorized and required annually to appoint four additional members from the city of Washington; and the said court shall thereafter consist of eleven members. Corporation cessary laws. SEC. 17. And be it further enacted, That the corporation of the may pass all ne- said city of Washington shall have full power and authority to pass all laws which may be needful and necessary to carry into full and complete effect the powers granted to the said corporation, or to any of its officers or servants, by this act, or by the act or acts to which this Repeal of in- act is amendatory or supplementary. And all acts or parts of acts in consistent provi- conflict with the provisions of this act, be, and the same are hereby, repealed. sions. May 17, 1848. 1847, ch. 83. APPROVED, May 17, 1848. CHAP. XLIII.- An Act in Amendment of an Act entitled "An Act to amend the Act entitled An Act to reduce the Rates of Postage, to limit the Use and correct the Abuse of the Franking Privilege, and for the Prevention of Fraud on the Revenues of the Post-Office Department,'" passed the third of March, one thousand eight hundred and forty-five. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Commissions United States of America in Congress assembled, That the rates of allowed to postmasters to be commissions authorized to be paid to postmasters by the first section reckoned on the of said act, shall be allowed and paid to them on the amount of postage quarters. Act made retrospective. received in each quarter of the year, and in due proportion for any period less than a quarter, instead of being allowed and paid on the amount received for a year, as was by mistake provided for in said act. SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That all postmasters whose commissions have been diminished by their being allowed and paid on the amount of postage received in a year, instead of on the amount received in a quarter, shall be permitted to resettle and adjust their accounts according to the first section of this act, and shall be allowed and paid such sum as may be justly found their due on such resettlement of their accounts. PostmasterSEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That the postmaster-general be general authorized to employ authorized to employ, temporarily, such additional clerks as may be additional clerks. found necessary for the resettlement of the accounts of postmasters authorized by this act. Additional compensation when imail arrives at night. SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That, to the postmasters at offices where the mail is regularly to arrive between the hours of nine o'clock at night and five in the morning, the commission on the first hundred dollars collected in one quarter may be increased by the postmastergeneral to a sum not exceeding fifty per cent. APPROVED, May 17, 1848. CHAP. XLIV. An Act to require the Holders of Military Land Warrants to compensate the Land Officers of the United States for Services in Relation to the Location of those Warrants. May 17, 1848. Fee for services by registers and receivers to hold 1847, ch. 9. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That for the services which may be rendered after the passage of this act by the registers and receivers of the several land offices of the United States in carry- ers of military ing out the provisions of the ninth section of the act of eleventh Febru- land warrants. ary, one thousand eight hundred and forty-seven, entitled "An Act to raise, for a limited time, an additional military force, and for other purposes," they shall each be entitled to require from the holders of warrants issued under that act, for one hundred and sixty acres, the sum of fifty cents for each; and from the holders of warrants, issued under the same law, for forty acres, the sum of twenty-five cents for each, as full compensation for those services: Provided, That in all cases where the warrant is located by, and for the use of, the volunteer or soldier to whom such warrant may have issued, for services rendered under the act aforesaid, no compensation shall be charged, either by the register or receiver, for making such location. APPROVED, May 17, 1848. Proviso. 1836, ch. 357 Additional ex aminers in the patent office. Salaries. Extension of Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That there shall be appointed, in the manner provided in the second section of the act entitled "An Act to promote the progress of useful arts, and to repeal all acts and parts of acts heretofore made for that purpose," approved July fourth, eighteen hundred and thirty-six, two principal examiners, and two assistant examiners, in addition to the number of examiners now employed in the Patent Office; and that hereafter each of the principal examiners employed in the Patent Office shall receive an annual salary of twenty-five hundred dollars, and each of the assistant examiners an annual salary of fifteen hundred dollars: Provided, That the power to extend patents, now vested in the board composed of the Secretary of State, Commissioner of Patents, and Solicitor of the Treas- patents. ury, by the eighteenth section of the act approved July fourth, eighteen hundred and thirty-six, respecting the Patent Office, shall hereafter be vested solely in the Commissioner of Patents; and when an application is made to him for the extension of a patent according to said eighteenth section, and sixty days' notice given thereof, he shall refer the case to the principal examiner having charge of the class of inventions to which said case belongs, who shall make a full report to said Commissioner of the said case, and particularly whether the invention or improvement secured in the patent was new and patentable when patented; and thereupon the said Commissioner shall grant or refuse the extension of said patent, upon the same principles and rules that have governed said board; but no patent shall be extended for a longer term than seven years. Fee for record of patents SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That hereafter the Commissioner of Patents shall require a fee of one dollar for recording any assign- ing conveyances ment, grant or conveyance, of the whole or any part of the interest in letters patent, or power of attorney, or license to make or use the things patented, when such instrument shall not exceed three hundred words; the sum of two dollars when it shall exceed three hundred and shall aot exceed one thousand words; and the sum of three dollars when it Two copying and recording clerks authorized. Franking privilege of Commis sioner of Patents. May 27, 1848. coasting trade mails, &c. Proviso as to manifest of car go, &c. shall exceed one thousand words; which fees shall in all cases be paid in advance. SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That there shall be appointed in manner aforesaid two clerks, to be employed in copying and recording, and in other services in the Patent Office, who shall each be paid a salary of one thousand two hundred dollars per annum. SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That the Commissioner of Patents is hereby authorized to send by mail, free of postage, the annual reports of the Patent Office, in the same manner in which he is empowered to send letters and packages relating to the business of the Patent Office. APPROVED, May 27, 1848. CHAP. XLVIII.— An Act extending Privileges to American Vessels engaged in a certain mentioned Trade, and for other Purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Vessels in the United States of America in Congress assembled, That it shall heremay touch at for- after be lawful for any steamship or other vessel, on being duly regiseign ports, and tered in pursuance of the laws of the United States, to engage in trade land passengers, between one port in the United States and one or more ports within the same, with the privilege of touching at one or more foreign ports during the voyage, and land and take in thereat merchandise, passengers and their baggage, and letters, and mails: Provided, That all such vessels shall be furnished by the collectors of the ports at which they shall take in their cargoes in the United States, with certified manifests, setting forth the particulars of the cargoes, the marks, number of packages, by whom shipped, to whom consigned, at what port to be delivered; designating such goods as are entitled to drawback, or to the privilege of being placed in warehouse; and the masters of all such vessels shall, on their arrival at any port of the United States from any foreign port at which such vessel may have touched, as herein provided, conform to the laws providing for the delivery of manifests, of cargo and passengers taken on board at such foreign port, and all other laws regulating the report and entry of vessels from foreign ports, and be subject to all the penalties therein prescribed. venue laws. be collected on Vessels enSEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That all vessels, and their cargaged in the trade referred to in this goes, engaged in the trade referred to in this act, shall become subject act shall be sub- to the provisions of existing collection and revenue laws on arrival in ject to existing collection and re- any port in the United States: Provided, That any foreign goods, wares, or merchandise, taken in at one port of the United States, to be Proviso that no conveyed in said vessels to any other port within the same, either under import duty shall the provisions of the warehousing act of sixth August, eighteen hunthe cargoes of dred and forty-six, or under the laws regulating the transportation such vessels on coastwise of goods entitled to drawback, as well as any goods, wares, ing at a foreign or merchandise not entitled to drawback, but on which the import duties chargeable by law shall have been duly paid, shall not become subject to any import duty by reason of the vessel in which they may arrive having touched at a foreign port during the voyage, in pursuance of the privilege given in this act. account of touch port. May 27, 1848. 1847, ch. 8. Who shall be APPROVED, May 27, 1848. - CHAP. XLIX. An Act explanatory of the Act entitled "An Act to raise, for a limited Time, an additional Military Force, and for other Purposes," approved eleventh February, eighteen hundred and forty-seven. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the term " relaconsidered as tives," as used in the ninth section of the act entitled "An Act to raise, as time an addition for a limited time, an additional military force, and for other purposes," "relatives," approved eleventh February, eighteen hundred and forty-seven, shall used in the act of 11th February, be considered as extending to the brothers and sisters of those persons 1847, ch. 8, to whose services, under that act, may have entitled them to the land raise for a limited therein provided: the order or priority of right, however, shall remain al military force, as declared in that act; and those failing, the right shall accrue, &c. fourthly, to the brother or sister, or in equal proportions to the brothers and sisters of the deceased, as the case may be. SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That the benefits of the said act Benefits of said of eleventh February, eighteen hundred and forty-seven, shall not be act shall not be forfeited by priconstrued as forfeited by the privates and non-commissioned officers vates who have who have been, or may be, promoted to the grade of commissioned been promoted. officer during their service in Mexico, and who shall have subsequently fulfilled the condition of their engagements: Provided, Such promotion shåll have been made subsequent to the original organization of the company, corps, or regiment to which such privates and non-commissioned officers may have belonged. APPROVED, May 27, 1848. Proviso. CHAP. L.. · An Act for the Admission of the State of Wisconsin into the Union. WHEREAS the people of the Territory of Wisconsin did, on the first day of February, eighteen hundred and forty-eight, by a convention of delegates, called and assembled for that purpose, form for themselves a constitution and State government, which said constitution is republican, and said convention having asked the admission of said Territory into the Union as a State, on an equal footing with the original States: May 29, 1848. 1847, ch. 53. State of Wisconsin admitted Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the State of Wisconsin be, and is hereby, admitted to be one of the United States into the Union. of America, and is hereby admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original States, in all respects whatever, with the boundaries prescribed by the act of Congress, approved August sixth, eighteen hundred and forty-six, entitled "An Act to enable the people of Wisconsin Territory to form a constitution and State government, and for the admission of such State into the Union." Boundaries. 1846, ch. 89. Assent of Con certain resolu State held for SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That the assent of Congress is hereby given to the first, second, fourth, and fifth resolutions adopted gress given to by said convention, and appended to said constitution; and the acts tions of the conof Congress referred to in the said resolutions are hereby amended, so vention of said that the lands granted by the provisions of the several acts referred to forming a constiin the said first and fourth resolutions, and the proceeds of said lands, tution, and certain acts of Conand the five per centum of the net proceeds of the public lands therein gress therein rementioned, shall be held and disposed of by said State, in the manner ferred to amendand for the purposes recommended by said convention; and so that, ed. also, the lands reserved to the United States by the provisions of the act entitled "An Act to grant a quantity of land to aid in the improve- 1846, ch. 170. ment of the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers, and to connect the same by a canal in the Territory of Wisconsin;" and, also, the even numbered sections reserved by the provisions of the act entitled "An Act to grant 1838, ch. 114. a quantity of land to the Territory of Wisconsin, for the purpose of aiding in opening a canal to connect the waters of Lake Michigan with those of Rock River," shall be offered for sale at the same minimum price, and subject to the same rights of preemption, as other public lands of the United States: Provided, however, That no person shall Proviso as to be entitled to a preëmption by reason of the settlement and cultivation rights." of any quarter section or other subdivision of said even numbered VOL. IX. PUB. -30 preemption |