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or the distribution thereof into two or more sections, at any time hereafter, or any change in the dimensions of that part of the present eastern section, extending from Cumberland, or the mouth of Will’s Creek, to the mouth of Savage, at the base of the Alleghany, or any substitution which the interest of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company may, in the opinion of the company, require to be made, of inclined planes, rail-ways, or an artificial road for a continued canal, through the Alleghany mountain, in any route which may be, by the company, finally adopted therefor, between the town of Cumberland and the river Ohio.

. And be it further enacted, That, to obviate any possible ambiguity that might arise in the construction of the second section of the act of Congress aforesaid, the authority, by that act designed to be given to the states of Maryland and Virginia, or to any company incorporated by either or both of those states, to extend a branch from the said canal, or to prolong the same, from the termination thereof, by a continuous canal, within, or through the District of Columbia, towards the territory of either of those states, shall be deemed and taken to be as full and complete in all respects, as the authority granted by that act, to the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal company to extend the main stem of the said canal, within the said district; or the authority reserved to the government of the United States to provide for the extension thereof, on either or both sides of the river Potomac, within the District of Columbia: Provided, That nothing herein contained shall impair the restriction in the charter of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company, designed to protect the canal from injury, by the prolongation thereof, or by any branch therefrom.

. And be it further enacted, That the act of the legislature of Maryland, which passed at their December session, of one thousand eight hundred and twenty-seven, entitled “An act further to amend the act incorporating the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company,” be, and the same is hereby, confirmed, so far as the assent of Congress may be deemed necessary thereto.

, May 23, 1828.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Secretary of the Treasury be, and he is hereby, authorized and directed to subscribe, in the name and for the use of the United States, for ten thousand shares of the capital stock of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company, and to pay for the same, at such times, and in such proportions, as shall be required of and paid by the stockholders, generally, by the rules and regulations of the company, out of the dividends which may accrue to the United States upon their bank stock in the bank of the United States: Provided, That not more than one fifth part of the sum, so subscribed for the use of the United States, shall be demanded, in any one year, after the organization of the said company; nor shall any greater sum be paid on the shares so subscribed for, than shall be proportioned to assessments made on individual or corporate stockholders: And provided, moreover, That, for the supply of water to such other canals as the state of Maryland, or Virginia, or the Congress of the United States, may authorize to be constructed, in connection with the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, the section of the said canal leading from the head of the Little Falls of the Potomac river, to the proposed basin, next above Georgetown, in the District of Columbia, shall have the elevation, above the tide of the