Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 29.djvu/88

 58   FIFTY-FOURTH CONGRESS. Sess. I. Chs. 56, 57. 1896.

CHAP. 56.--An Act To incorporate the Supreme Council of the Thirty-Third Degree of Scottish Rite Masonry for the Southern Jurisdiction of the United States.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That Thomas Hubbard Caswell, of the city of San Francisco, State of California; Odell Squier Long, of the city of Charleston, State of West Virginia; Erasmus Theodore Carr, of Miles City, State of Montana; Frederick Webber, of the city of Washington, District of Columbia; Gilmor Meredith, of the city of Baltimore, State of Maryland, and Samuel Emery Adams, of the city of Minneapolis, State of Minnesota, officers and members of the supreme council of the Supreme Council of the Thirty-Third Degree of Scottish Rite Masonry for the Southern Jurisdiction of the United States, and their successors, be, and they are hereby, incorporated and made a body politic and corporate in the District of Columbia by the name of “The Supreme Council (Mother Council of the World) of the Inspectors General Knights Commanders of the House of the Temple of Solomon of the Thirty-Third Degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Free Masonry of the Southern Jurisdiction of the United States of America;" and by that name it may sue and be sued, plead and be impleaded in any court of law or equity, and may have and use a common seal, and change the same at pleasure, and be entitled to use and exercise all the powers, rights, and privileges incidental to fraternal and benevolent corporations within the District of Columbia. Sec. 2. That the said corporation shall have the power to take and hold personal estate and such real estate as shall be necessary and proper for the promotion of the fraternal and benevolent purposes of said corporation, which shall not be divided among the members of the corporation, but shall descend to their successors for the promotion of the objects aforesaid. Sec. 3. That all claims, accounts, debts, things in action, or other matters of business of whatever nature now existing for or against the present supreme council mentioned in section one of this Act, shall survive and succeed to and against the body corporate and politic hereby created: Provided, That nothing contained herein shall be construed to extend the operation of any law which provides for the extinguishing of claims or contracts by limitations of time. Sec. 4. That said corporation shall have a constitution and regulations or by-laws, and shall have power to amend the same at pleasure: Provided, That such constitution and regulations or by-laws or amendments thereof do not conflict with the laws of the United States or of any State. Sec. 5. That said corporation shall not engage in any business for gain, the purposes of said corporation being fraternal and benevolent. Approved, March 13, l896.

CHAP. 57.--An Act To incorporate the convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the diocese of Washington.

Whereas it has been represented to the Congress of the United States by a committee, appointed by the primary convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the diocese of Washington. whereof the Reverend John H. Elliott, Doctor of Divinity. was president, and Reverend Arthur S. Johns was secretary, convened in the city of Washington on the fourth day of December, anno Domini eighteen hundred and ninety-five, which diocese comprises the District of Columbia, together with the counties of Montgomery, Prince George’s, Charles, and Saint Mary’s, in the State of Maryland, and the convention whereof is composed of clergymen of said church canonically resident within said diocese and entitled to seats in said convention, and laymen duly chosen to represent the parishes and congregations in said diocese, and, as