Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 5.djvu/487



are hereby expressly prohibited from issuing or paying out or offering in payment any bank note or other paper in discharge of their debts or liabilities of any kind on any pretence whatever, which the particular bank making the payment or tender is not, at the time of such payment, in the habit of receiving at par, in payments of all notes or other debts due and payable at said bank, under pain of forfeiting for every such offence double the sum so paid out or offered in payment of its own debt or debts; one half to the informer, and one half to the use of the town or city in which the offending bank may be situated, to be recovered by action of debt in any court of competent jurisdiction in the District of Columbia.

. And be it further enacted, That each and every of said banks be, and they are hereby, expressly prohibited from issuing or paying out, under any pretence whatever, any bill, note, or other paper, designed or intended to be used and circulated as money, of a less denomination than five dollars; and for any violation of the provisions of this section, the offending bank shall incur all the penalties and forfeitures to be provided and directed by the first section of this act for the case of suspension or refusal to pay in specie; to be enforced in like manner, as is directed by that section.

. And be it further enacted, That each and every of the banks aforesaid shall, within forty days after the passage of this act, hold an election in the form and manner prescribed by their respective original charters for nine directors, which shall in future be the number of directors for each of said banks; and the persons elected at said election, shall severally remain in office until the recurrence of the time prescribed by the original charter of each of said banks respectively, for an annual election of directors, at which last mentioned time, and at the same time in every year thereafter, each of said banks shall make its election of directors and other officers agreeably to the provisions of its original charter, except as to the number of directors, which shall in every case hereafter be nine. And there shall be chosen for each of said banks at the special election hereby provided for, or as soon thereafter as may be in conformity to the provisions of their respective original charters, a president and such other officers as may, by the particular charter, be required to be elected, who shall hold their offices for the same time and in the same manner as if said charters had not expired and said officers had been chosen at the last annual election.

. And be it further enacted, That this act shall continue in force until the fourth day of July which shall be in the year eighteen hundred and forty-four.

. And be it further enacted, That the act entitled “,” approved the twenty-fifth day of May in the year eighteen hundred and thirty-eight, be and the same is hereby extended to the first day of July in the year eighteen hundred and forty-seven, until which time the said act shall be in full force for the sole purpose of enabling the president and directors of the said bank for the time being to close its affairs.

, August 25, 1841.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the accounts presented by the Marshal of the District of Columbia for expenses incurred by the funeral of the President of the United States, be referred to the proper accounting officer of the Treasury, who is hereby directed