Neutrality,1818, ch. 88. Vol. iii. p.447. Persons charged with crime. American seamen. Rescuing seamen. Scheldt dues. Vol. xiii. p. 649. Award to Hudson's Bay and Puget Sound Agricultural Companies. Vol. xiii. p. 651. Certain taxes to be settled before payment of award; or amount withheld. Feb. 21, 1871. Vol. xvii. p. 16. District of Columbia constituted a body corporate for municipal purposes. Powers, & c. Govenor, appointment, and term of office; qualifications; powers and duties. Veto power.
For expenses under the neutrality act, twenty thousand dollars.
For expenses incurred under instructions of the Secretary of State, of bringing home from foreign countries persons charged with crimes, and expenses incident thereto, including loss by exchange, five thousand dollars.
For relief and protection of American seamen in foreign countries, one hundred thousand dollars.
For expenses which may be incurred in acknowledging the services of masters and crews of foreign vessels in rescuing American citizens from shipwreck, five thousand dollars.
For payment of the seventh annual instalment of the proportion contributed by the United States toward the capitalization of the Scheldt dues, fifty-five thousand five hundred and eighty-four dollars; and for such further sum, not exceeding five thousand dollars, as may be necessary to carry out the stipulations of the treaty between the United States and Belgium.
To pay to the government of Great Britain and Ireland, the second and last instalment of the amount awarded by the commissioners under the treaty of July one, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, in satisfaction of the Hudson's Bay and of the Puget Sound Agricultural Company, three hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars in gold coin : Provided, That before payment shall be made of that portion of the above sum awarded to the Puget Sound Agricultural Company, all taxes legally assessed upon any of the property of said company covered by said award, before the same was made, and still unpaid, shall be extinguished by said Puget Sound Agricultural Company; or the amount of such taxes shall be withheld by the government of the United States from the sum hereby appropriated.
Approved, February 21, 1871.
CHAP. LXII. -— An Act to provide a Government for the District of Columbia. Feb. 21, 1871. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That all that part of the territory of the United States included within the limits of the District of Columbia be, and the same is hereby, created into a government by the name of the District of Columbia, by which name it is hereby constituted a body corporate for municipal purposes, and may contract and be contracted with, sue and be sued, plead and be impleaded, have a seal, and exercise all other powers of a municipal corporation not inconsistent with the Constitution and laws of the United States and the provisions of this act.
Sec. 2. And be it farther enacted, That the executive power and authority in and over said District of Columbia shall be vested in a governor, who shall be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, and who shall hold his office for four years, and until his successor shall be appointed and qualified. The governor shall be a citizen of and shall have resided within said District twelve months before his appointment, and have the qualifications of an elector. He may grant pardons and respites for offenses against the laws of the said District enacted by the legislative assembly thereof; he shall commission all officers who shall be elected or appointed to office under the laws of the said District enacted as aforesaid, and shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed.
Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That every bill which shall have passed the council and house of delegates shall, before it becomes a law, be presented to the governor of the District of Columbia; if be approve, he shall sign it, but if not, he shall return it, with his objections, to the house in which it shall have originated, who shall enter the objections at
