Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 2.djvu/292



resources, shall constitute a general fund, to be appropriated as the common council shall direct.

. And be it further enacted, That every free white male citizen of full age, who shall be fona fide seised of a freehold estate in the town of Alexandria, or who shall have resided in the town aforesaid for the space of one year, and have been a housekeeper therein for the space of three months next preceding the day of the election, and who shall have been within that time charged with any tax upon the public books, and shall have paid such tax, shall be qualified to vote for members to serve in the common council of the said town, and no other person shall exercise the right of suffrage; and the persons qualified, as aforesaid, to vote, shall meet at some convenient place in the ward in which they respectively reside, and elect by ballot four persons for the representatives of such ward in the common council, out of the free white male citizens who shall have arrived to the age of twenty-one years, and shall have resided in the town of Alexandria three years, and in the ward for which he shall be elected, for the space of three months immediately preceding the election, and shall moreover be seised of an estate of freehold in the said ward, and be a housekeeper therein. And that the said election shall be held on the first Tuesday of March, in every year, by three commissioners to be appointed in each ward for that purpose by the mayor and commonalty for the ensuing election, and afterwards by the common council, which appointment shall be at least ten days before the day of each election, except in regard to the first election to be held under this act. The election for the ensuing year shall be held at such place, in each ward, as shall be fixed on by the mayor and commonalty, and thereafter shall be held at such place as shall be appointed by the common council, of which public notice shall be given.

. And be it further enacted, That the members of the common council, elected as aforesaid, or any twelve of them, shall, within seven days after their election in each year, assemble themselves at the courthouse, or any other place which shall be hereafter fixed for their meeting, and shall choose one of their body to be president of the said common council, to whom shall be administered, by any justice of the peace in the county of Alexandria, an oath of affirmation for the faithful discharge of the duties of his office; whereupon the president of the said common council shall administer the oath of office to the other members of the said council, and shall have, while the council is in session, the same power which is at present exercised by the mayor, upon the like occasion; and he shall convene the council whenever in the opinion of four of the members expressed to him in writing, or whenever in his opinion the good of the town may require it: and the authority of the said common council shall continue one year from the day of their election, and until others are chosen and qualified in their stead, and no longer. That the common council so elected, and those thereafter to be elected, and their successors, shall be and hereby are made a body politic and corporate, by the name of the Common Council of Alexandria; and by the said name shall have perpetual succession, with capacity to purchase, possess and enjoy lands and tenements, and goods and chattels, either in fee or lesser estate therein, and the same to give, grant, let, sell, assign or transfer; and to plead and be impleaded, prosecute and defend all causes, complaints, actions real, personal or mixed, and to have one common seal, and perpetual succession. And all the estate, rights, and credits, now vested in the mayor and commonalty of the town of Alexandria, shall be vested in the said common council, when elected, and may be recovered in their name for the use of the said town, and in like manner all claims and demands against the mayor and commonalty of Alexandria, prior to the operation of the present act, may be prosecuted and recovered against the aforesaid common council; and process