Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 3.djvu/628



to be paid by the corporation; the amount thereof, and the expenses accruing, shall be levied, in due proportion, upon the individuals whose property on such squares shall be benefited thereby, and collected as other taxes are; to occupy and improve, for public purposes, by and with the consent of the President of the United States, any part of the public and open squares in said city, not interfering with any private rights; to regulate the admeasurement and weight by which all articles brought into the city for sale shall be disposed of; to provide for the apportionment of appraisers and measures of builders’ work and materials, and also of wood, coal, grain, and lumber; to restrain and prohibit the nightly and other disorderly meetings of slaves, free negroes, and mulattoes, and to punish such slaves by whipping, not exceeding forty stripes, or by imprisonment, not exceeding six months, for any one offence; and to punish such free negroes and mulattoes, by penalties, not exceeding twenty dollars for any one offence; and in case of the inability of any such free negro or mulatto to pay any such penalty and cost thereon, to cause him or her to be confined to labour for any time not exceeding six calendar months; to cause all vagrants, idle or disorderly persons, all persons of evil life or ill-fame, and all such as have no visible means of support, or are likely to become chargeable to the corporation as paupers, or are found begging or drunk in or about the streets, or loitering in or about tipping houses, or who can show no reasonable cause of business or employment in the city, and all suspicious persons who have no fixed place of residence, or who cannot give a good account of themselves; all evesdroppers and nightwalkers; all who shall be guilty of open profanity, or grossly indecent language or behaviour publicly in the streets; all public prostitutes, and such as lead a notoriously lewd or lascivious course of life, and all such as keep public gaming tables, or gaming houses, to give security for their good behaviour for a reasonable time, and to indemnify the city against any charge for their support; and, in case of their refusal or inability to give such security, to cause them to be confined to labour until such security shall be given, not exceeding, however, one year at a time; but if they shall be found again offending, the like proceedings may be again had, and from time to time, as often as may be necessary to enforce the departure of such vagrants and paupers as may come into the city to reside, unless they shall give ample security that they will not become chargeable on the corporation for their support; to provide for the binding out as apprentices of poor orphan children, and the children of drunkards, vagrants, and paupers; to prescribe the terms and conditions upon which free negroes and mulattoes may reside in the city; to authorize, with the approbation of the President of the United States, the drawing of lotteries for the erection of bridges and effecting any important improvements in the city, which the ordinary revenue thereof will not accomplish, for the term of ten years: Provided, that the amount so authorized to be raised in each year shall not exceed the sum of ten thousand dollars, clear of expenses; to take care of and regulate burial grounds; to provide for the registering of births, deaths, and marriages; to punish corporeally any coloured servant or slave for a breach of any of their laws or ordinances, unless the owner or holder of such servant or slave shall pay the fine in such cases provided; and to pass all laws which shall be deemed necessary and proper for carrying into execution the powers vested by this act in the said corporation or its officers.

. And be it further enacted, That the marshal of the District of Columbia shall receive and safely keep within the jail for the county of Washington, at the expense of the said corporation, all persons committed thereto under or by authority of the provisions of this act. And in all cases where suit shall be brought before a justice of the peace, for