Page:The History of Oregon Bancroft 1888.djvu/95

Rh that land claims should descend to heirs at law as personal property.

An act was passed at this session which made it unlawful for any negro or mulatto to come into or reside in the territory; that masters of vessels bringing them should be held responsible for their conduct, and they should not be permitted to leave the port where the vessel was lying except with the consent of the master of the vessel, who should cause them to depart with the vessel that brought them, or some other, within forty days after the time of their arrival. Masters or owners of vessels failing to observe this law were made subject to fine not less than five hundred dollars, and imprisonment. If a negro or mulatto should be found in the territory, it became the duty of any judge to issue a warrant for his arrest, and cause his removal; and if the same negro or mulatto were twice found in the territory, he should be fined and imprisoned at the discretion of the court. This law, however, did not apply to the negroes already in the territory. The act was ordered published in the newspapers of California.

The next most interesting action of the legislative assembly was the enactment of a school law, which provided for the establishment of a permanent irreducible fund, the interest on which should be divided annually among the districts; but as the school lands could not be made immediately available, a tax of two mills was levied for the support of common schools in the interim. The act in its several chapters created the offices of school commissioner and directors for each county and defined their duties; also the duties of teachers. The eighth chapter relating to the powers of district meetings provided that until the counties were districted the people in any neighborhood, on ten days' notice, given by any two legal voters, might call a meeting and organize a district; and the district