ABSTRACT OF PUBLIC LAWS PASSED AT THE THIRD SESSION OF THE FORTY-FIRST CONGRESS, AND THE FIRST SESSION OF THE FORTY-SECOND CONGRESS, WITH RESOLUTIONS AND PROCLAMATIONS. FORTY-FIRST CONGRESS-THIRD SESSION COMMENCED DEC. 5, 1870-CLOSED March 4, 1871. CHAP. II.-Lands for the Utah Central Railroad.-Grants 200 feet on each side of the road, besides land necessary for stations, shops, side tracks, &c. The road to be a post-route. CHAP. VI.-Sugar.-Modifies and reduces the tariff on sugar; present rate from 14 to 4 cents per lb. -- CHAP. XXII.-Internal Improvements. Grants $200,000 to improve the Louisville and Portland canal for 1871. CHAP. XXXIII.-Kansas.-Provides for reimbursing Kansas for expense of raising and equipping troops in the Rebellion; sum not stated. CHAP. XXXIV.-Internal Improvements. Appropriates $100,000 to improve St. Mary's Falls, canal and river. CHAP. XXXV.-Judicial Districts.-Divides Virginia into two judicial districts. CHAP. XXXVIII.-Indians.-Provides for the sale of the Stockbridge Reservation in Wisconsin, and the removal of the Indians to another location. CHAP. XLV. Smuggling.-Amends the Act to Prevent Smuggling, with especial reference to the Canadian frontier. CHAP. XLVIII.-Indian Lands.-Provides for the sale of not more than six townships of the Menominee Reservation in Wisconsin. CHAP. L.-Pensions of 1812.-Provides that the Secretary of the Interior place on the pension roll the names of the surviving officers and enlisted and drafted men, including militia and volunteers, of the military and naval service of the United States, who served sixty days in the war with Great Britain of 1812, and were honorably discharged, and to such other officers and soldiers as may have been personally named in any resolution of Congress for any specific service in said war, although their term of service may have been less than sixty days, and who at no time, during the late rebellion against the authority of the United States, adhered to the cause of the enemies of the government. The pension is $8 per month; widows who have not married again are provided for. CHAP. LXII.—District of Columbia.-Provides a government for the District, making it substantially a regular Territory. The governor and secretary are appointed for four years by the President, confirmed by the Senate; there is a Legislature consisting of a Council of eleven members, and a House of Delegates of twentytwo members. (This Act was put in effect early in the summer.) CHAP. LXVII.-Bridge over the Missouri.Authorizes the Union Pacific Railroad Company to issue bonds for building a bridge at or near Omaha, Congress may regulate tolls and fares for the bridge. CHAP. LXVIII.--Selling Military Reserva tions.-Provides for surveying and putting in market the military lands of Fort Lane and Walla Walla in Oregon, Fort Zarah in Kansas, Camp Garry in Nevada, Fort Sumner in New Mexico, Forts Jessup and Sabine in Louisiana, Forts Wayne and Smith in Arkansas, Fort Abercrombie on the Red River of the North, and part of Fort Bridger in Wyoming. CHAP. XCIX.-Protection of the Right of Suffrage. (This act is effective only when members of Congress are to be chosen.) Fraudulent registration for the purpose of voting, using force, or bribery, or in any way hindering a legal voter from registering, tampering with the registering officers, knowingly registering one not entitled to vote, making or using false papers, or doing any unlawful act to impede or falsify the registry, is declared a crime, punishable by the penalties named in the act of May 31, 1870. (See TRIBUNE ALMANAC for 1871, pages 20-21.) In towns of over 20,000, upon written application of two citizens, the Judge of the United States Circuit Court shall, ten days before registration or election, appoint two citizens for each election district, of different political parties, who shall be known as supervisors of election. These supervisors must attend the registration, where there is any, to challenge suspected persons, scrutinize the books of registered names, sign their names to each page thereof, and do any lawful act to preserve the purity of the registration. They are also to attend the polls whenever members of Congress are to be chosen, to challenge any one whose right to vote is not clear, to remain with the ballot boxes until the canvass is fully made, to scrutinize the way in which the books and tallies are kept and the voting done; "and to the end that each candidate for the office of representative or delegate in Congress shall obtain the benefit of every vote for him cast, the said supervisors of election are, and each of them is, hereby required, in their or his respective election districts or voting precincts, to personally scrutinize, count, and canvass each and every ballot in their or his election district or voting precinct cast, whatever may be the indorsement on said ballot, or in whatever box it may have been placed or be found; to make and forward to the officer who, in accordance with the provisions of section thirteen of this act, shall have been designated as the chief supervisor of the judicial district in which the city or town wherein they or he shall serve shall be, such certificates and returns of all such ballots as said officer may direct and require, and to attach to the registry list, and any and all copies thereof, and to any certificate, statement, or return, whether the same, or any part or portion thereof, be required by any law of the United States, or of any State, territorial, or municipal law, of Elections for such district, whose duty it is to CHAP. C.-Security of Life on Steam Vessels.-Steamers are to have pipes attached to the boilers to use steam for putting out fire; stoves and cooking ranges to be securely fastened, and wood-work near them carefully shielded; steamers carrying 50 passengers, or any passenger steamer carrying cotton, hay, or hemp, shall have a double-action steam firepump, or equivalent apparatus for throwing carry water to upper decks, with sufficient hose to reach any part of the vessel. Steamers exceeding 200 tons must have two double-acting fire-pumps, to be worked by hand, with hose, &c.; pipes from the pumps to the water below the vessel's water-line must be in order; no loose hay, hemp, cotton, camphene, nitro-glycerine, naphtha, benzine, benzole, coal oil, petroleum, or other like dangerous articles, shall be carried either as freight or stores on passenger steamers. Careful regulations for carrying these and other dangerous articles are made in the act, with heavy penalties for neglect or violation of the rules. Steamers are to employ watchmen at night; must have small boats always ready for use; also life preservers, fire-buckets, water barrels or tanks, axes, convenient stairways, clear gangways, ample space for deck passengers, wire tiller-ropes and bell-pulls, and metal speaking tubes; $300 penalty for neglecting these matters. The system of inspecting steamers is improved, and incompetent inspectors are removed. Minute directions for inspecting boilers, engines and hulls, are enacted, and captains, chief mates, engineers, and pilots are to be licensed. A supervising inspector-general, and supervising inspectors for the several districts, meet once a year (third Wednesday in January) to further the enforcement of this act. (The act goes into minute directions, that are unintelligible to the non-professional reader.) any statement touching the truth or accuracy of the registry, or the truth or fairness of the election and canvass, which the said supervisors of election, or either of them, may desire to make or attach, or which should properly and honestly be made or attached, in order that the facts may become known, any law of any State or Territory to the contrary notwithstanding." The supervisors are to select such places in the registering or voting room as may best enable them to see and know how the business is conducted, any State or local law to the contrary notwithstanding. They will report any molestation or obstruction offered to them in the performance of their duty to the chief supervisor of the judicial district, who will apply for the proper remedy. In large cities, the United States Marshal may appoint two special deputies in each election district to assist the supervisors, and it shall be the duty of such special deputies, to keep the peace, and support and protect the supervisors of elections in the discharge of their duties, preserve order at such places of registration, and at such polls, prevent fraudulent re-water, with a pipe on each side the vessel to gistration and fraudulent voting thereat, or fraudulent conduct on the part of any officer of election, and immediately, either at said place of registration or polling-place, or elsewhere, and either before or after registering or voting, to arrest and take into custody, with or without process, any person who shall commit, or attempt or offer to commit, any of the acts or offenses prohibited by this act, or the act hereby amended, or who shall commit any offense against the laws of the United States: Provided, That no person shall be arrested without process for any offense not committed in the presence of the marshal or his general or special deputies, or either of them, or of the supervisors of election, or either of them, and, for the purposes of arrest or the preservation of the peace, the supervisors of election, and each of them, shall, in the absence of the marshal's deputies, or if required to assist said deputies, have the same duties and powers as deputy marshals: And provided further, That no person shall, on the day or days of any such election, be arrested without process for any offense committed on the day or days of registration. Persons arrested must be taken before a commissioner, judge, or a court of the United States. Any person obstructing or refusing to assist the supervisors in their legitimate duties, or interfering in any way improperly with the supervisors or deputy mashals, is "liable to instant arrest without process, and on conviction to not more than two years imprisonment, or $3,000 fine, or both; and he shall pay the costs of the prosecution.'" Refusal to answer proper questions, or refraining from answering, or giving false information, is a misdemeanor, to be punished by 30 days imprisonment, or $100 fine, or both, and the offender shall pay the costs of prosecution. Supervisors an I deputy marshals duly sworn in, who neglect or refuse to act without lawful excuse, are guilty of misdemeanor, with penalty of six to twelve months imprisonment, or $200 to $500 fiue, or both. Marshals resisted in making arrests, may call on the bystanders or the posse comitatus for aid. One United States commissioner in each judicial district is to be appointed by the Circuit Court Chief Supervisor CHAP. CV.-Our National Centenary Celebration.-Provides that an exhibition of American and foreign arts, products, and manufactures shall be held, under the auspices of the government of the United States, in the city of Philadelphia, in the year 1876. A commission to consist of not more than one delegate from each State and Territory, whose functions shall continue until the close of the exhibition, shall be constituted, whose duty it shall be to prepare and superintend the execution of a plan for holding the exhibition, and, after conference with the authorities of Philadelphia, to fix upon a suitable site within the limits of the city. where the exhibition shall be held. Said commissioners shall be appointed within one year from the passage of this act by the President of the United States, on the nomination of the governors of the States and Territories respectively. In the same manner there shall be appointed one commissioner from each State and Territory of the United States, who shall assume the place and perform the duties of such commissioner or commissioners as may be unable to attend the meetings of the commission. The commission shall hold its meetings in the city of Philadelphia. The commission shall report to Congress at the first session after its appointment a suitable date for opening and for closing the exhibition; a schedule of appropriate ceremonies for opening or dedicating the same; a plan or plans of the buildings; a complete plan for the reception and classification of articles intended for exhibition; the requisite custom-house regulations for the introduction into this country of the articles from foreign countries intended for exhibition; and such other matters as in their judgment may be important. No compensation for services shall be paid to the commissioners or other officers provided by this act from the treasury of the United States; and the United States shall not be liable for any expenses at-public land, are granted, with the usual provitending such exhibition, or by reason of the same. Whenever the President shall be informed by the governor of Pennsylvania that provision has been made for the erection of suitable buildings, and for the exclusive control by the commission of the proposed exhibition, the President shall make proclamation of the same, setting forth the time at which the exhibition will open and the place at which it will be held; and he shall communicate to the diplomatic representatives of all nations copies of the same, together with such regulations as may be adopted by the commissioners, for publication in their respective countries. [equity within the United States, and may make and use a common seal: and the said corporation is hereby authorized and empowered to lay out, locate, construct, furnish, maintain, and enjoy a continuous railroad and telegraph line, with the appurtenances, from a point at or near Marshall, county of Harrison, Texas; thence by the most direct and eligible route, to be determined by said company, near the thirty-second parallel of north latitude, to a point at or near El Paso; thence by the most direct and eligible route, to be selected by said company, through New Mexico and Arizona, to a point on the Rio Colorado, at or near the southeastern boundary of California; thence by the most direct and eligible route to San Diego, California, to ship's channel, in the bay of San Diego, California, pursuing in the location thereof, as near as may be, the thirty-second parallel of north latitude, and is hereby vested with all the powers, privileges, and immunities necessary to carry into effect the purposes of this act." The capital stock is not to exceed $50,000,000, in shares of $100. Right of way, and alternate sections of CHAP. CX.-Bridges over the Mississippi and the Missouri.-The Louisiana and Missouri Railroad Company may bridge the Mississippi at the city of Louisiana; and the same company may bridge the Missouri near Glasgow. The bridges to be not less than fifty feet above the water, or draw-bridges, as preferred. They are to be post-roads. CHAP. CXVI.-Claims of Loyal Citizens.The second section of the Army Appropriation bill provides for a board of three commissioners, to be appointed by the President, who shall consider the justice and validity of such claims as shall be brought before them, of those citizens who remained loyal adherents to the cause and the government of the United States during the war, for stores or supplies taken or furnished during the rebellion for the use of the army of the United States in States proclaimed as in insurrection against the United States, including the use and loss of vessels or boats while employed in the military service of the United States. The board sits in Washington, and provision is made for their guidance; they must report fully upon all claims presented. CHAP. CXXII.-Texas Pacific Railroad.This act names certain persons" who are hereby created a body politic and corporate in fact and in law, by the name, style, and title of the Texas Pacific Railroad Company, and by that name shall have perpetual succession, and shall be able to sue and be sued, plead and be impleaded, defend and be defended, in all courts of law and sions for conveyance, sale, &c. The face value of bonds issued by the company shall be one thousand dollars in gold, and shall be redeemable at such times, and to bear such rate of interest, payable semi-annually in gold, as may be determined by the directors. The total value of the construction bonds to be issued shall not exceed thirty thousand dollars per mile of said railroad, and the total face value of the land bonds shall not exceed two dollars and fifty cents per acre for all lands mortgaged; the total amount of each to be determined by the board of directors. The road shall be constructed of iron or steel rails manufactured from American ore, except such as may have heretofore been contracted for by any railroad company which may be purchased or consolidated with by the company hereby incorporated. The company shall commence the construction of its road simultaneously at San Diego, California, and from a point at or near Marshall, Texas, and so prosecute the same as to have at least fifty consecutive miles of railroad from each of said points complete and in running order within two years after the passage of this act; and to so continue to construct each year thereafter a sufficient number of miles to secure the completion of the whole line from the aforesaid point on the eastern boundary of the State of Texas to the bay of San Diego, California, within ten years after the passage of this act; and upon failure to so complete it, Congress may adopt such measures as it may deem necessary and proper to secure its speedy completion. The road is to be a military and post-route. Other railroads may cross or connect with this one. CHAP. CXXIV.--Redemption of Small Coins. Provides for the redemption at the Treasury Department of copper, bronze and nickel coins, when presented in sums of not less than $20. RESOLUTIONS. No. 7.-San Domingo.-The President to appoint three commissioners, to serve without pay, who shall ascertain and report the political state and condition of the Republic of Dominica, the probable number of inhabitants, and the desire and disposition of the people of the said republic to become annexed to and to form part of the people of the United States; the physical, mental and moral condition of the said people, and their general condition as to material wealth and industrial capacity; the resources of the country; its mineral and agricultural products; the products of its waters and forests; the general character of the soil; the extent and proportion thereof capable of cultivation; the climate and health of the country; its bays, harbors and rivers; its general meteorological character, and the existence and frequency of remarkable meteorological phenomena; the debt of the government, and its obligations, whether funded, and ascertained, and admitted, or unadjusted and under discussion; treaties or engagements with other powers; extent of boundaries and territory; what proportion is covered by foreign claimants or by grants or concessions, and generally what concessions or franchises have been granted, with the names of the respective grantees; the terms and conditions on which the Dominican government may desire to be annexed to and become part of the United States as one of the Territories thereof; such other information with respect to the said government or its territories as to the said commissioners shall seem desirable or important with reference to the future incorporation of the said Dominican republic into the United States as one of its Territories. No. 28.-Transporting Food to Europe.The President is authorized to cause to be stationed at New York, Boston and Philadelphia, if the same can be done without injury to the public service, one or more of our naval vessels, FORTY-SECOND CONGRESS-FIRST SESSION, CHAP. XXII.--Enforcing the Fourteenth Amendment.-This act provides that any person who, under color of any law, statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage of any State, shall subject any person within the jurisdiction of the United States to the deprivation of any rights, privileges or immunities secured by the Constitution, shall, any such law, statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage of the State to the contrary notwithstanding, be liable to the party injured in any action at law, suit in equity, or other proper proceeding for redress; such proceeding to be prosecuted in the several district or circuit courts of the United States, with and subject to the same rights of appeal, review upon error, and other remedies provided in like cases in such courts, and the other remedial laws of the United States which are in their nature applicable in such cases. That if two or more persons shall conspire together to overthrow, or to put down, or to destroy by force the government of the United States, or to levy war against the United States, or to oppose by force the authority of the government, or by force, intimidation, or threat to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States, or by force to seize, take, or possess any property of the United States contrary to the authority thereof, or by force, intimidation, or threat to prevent any to be there held in readiness to receive on board for transportation such supplies as may be furnished by the people of the United States for the destitute and suffering people of France and Germany. No. 48.-Bridge over the Wabash-Authorizes the Chicago and Illinois Southern Railroad Company to bridge the Wabash in White County, Ill.; to be a drawbridge, or if not, at a height that will not interfere with navigation. PROCLAMATIONS. No. 13.-Neutrality.-This is the usual caution against interference in the war between Germany and France. No. 14.-Fenianism.-After reciting the operations of the Irish leaders, in projecting an invasion of Canada, the proclamation concludes: "Now, therefore, I, ULYSSES S. GRANT, President of the United States of America, do hereby declare and proclaim that all persons hereafter found within the territory or jurisdiction of the United States committing any of the afore-recited violations of law, or any similar violations of the sovereignty of the United States for which punishment is provided by law, will be rigorously prosecuted therefor, and, upon conviction and sentence to punishment, will not be entitled to expect or receive the clemency of the executive to save them from the consequences of their guilt; and I enjoin upon every officer of this government, civil or military or naval, to use all efforts in his power to arrest, for trial and punishment, every such offender against the laws providing for the performance of our sacred obligations to friendly powers. COMMENCED MARCH 4, 1871- CLOSED APRIL 20, 1871. person from accepting or holding any office of trust or place of confidence under the United States, or from discharging the duties thereof, or by force, intimidation, or threat to induce any officer of the United States to leave any State, district, or place where his duties as such officer might lawfully be performed, or to injure him in his person or property on account of his lawful discharge of the duties of his office, or to injure his person while engaged in the lawful discharge of the duties of his office, or to injure his property so as to molest, interrupt, hinder, or impede him in the discharge of his official duty, or by force, intimidation, or threat to deter any party or witness in any court of the United States from attending such court, or from testifying in any matter pending in such court fully, freely, and truthfully, or to injure any such party or witness in his person or property on account of his having so attended or testified, or by force, intimidation or threat to influence the verdict, presentment, or indictment of any juror or grand juror in any court of the United States, or to injure such juror in his person or property on account cf any verdict, presentment, or indictment lawfully assented to by him, or on account of his being or having been such juror, or shall conspire together, or go in disguise upon the public highway or upon the premises of another for the purpose, either directly or indirectly, of depriving any person or any class of persons of the equal protection of the laws, or of equal privileges or immunities under the laws, or for the purpose of preventing or hindering the constituted authorities of any State from giving or securing to all persons within such State the equal protection of the laws, or shall conspire together for the purpose of in any manner impeding, hindering, obstructing, or defeating the due course of justice in any State or Territory, with intent to deny to any citizen of the United States the due and equal protection of the laws, or to injure any person in his person or his prop erty for lawfully enforcing the right of any person or class of persons to the equal protection of the laws, or by force, intimidation, or threat to prevent any citizen of the United States lawfully entitled to vote from giving his support or advocacy in a lawful manner towards or in favor of the election of any lawfully qualified person as an elector of President or Vice-President of the United States, or as a member of the Congress of the United States, or to injure any such citizen in his person or property on account of such support or advocacy, each and every person so offending shall be deemed guilty of a high crime, and, upon conviction thereof in any district or circuit court of the United States, or district or supreme court of any Territory of the United States having jurisdiction of similar of fences, shall be punished by a fine not less than five hundred nor more than five thousand dollars, or by imprisonment, with or without hard labor, as the court may determine, for a period of not less than six months nor more than six years, as the court may determine, or by both such fine and imprisonment, as the court shall determine. And if any one or more persons engaged in any such conspiracy shall do, or cause to be done, any act in furtherance of the object of such conspiracy, whereby any person shall be injured in his person or property, or deprived of having and exercising any right or privilege of a citizen of the United States, the person so injured or deprived of such rights and privileges may have and maintain an action for the recovery of damages occasioned by such injury or deprivation of rights and privileges against any one or more of the persons engaged in such conspiracy, such action to be prosecuted in the proper district or circuit court of the United States, with and subject to the same rights of appeal, review upon error, and other remedies provided in like cases in such courts under the provisions of the act of April ninth, eighteen hundred and sixty-six, entitled "An act to protect all persons in the United States in their civil rights, and to furnish the means of their vindication." That in all cases where insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combinations, or conspiracies in any State shall so obstruct or hinder the execution of the laws thereof, and of the United States, as to deprive any portion or class of the people of such State of any of the rights, privileges, or immunities, or protection, named in the Constitution and secured by this act, and the constituted authorities of such State shall either be unable to protect, or shall, from any cause, fail in or refuse protection of the people in such rights, such facts shall be deemed a denial by such State of the equal protection of the laws to which they are entitled under the Constitution of the United States; and in all such cases, or whenever any such insurrection, violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy shall oppose or obstruct the laws of the United States or the due execution thereof, or impede or obstruct the due course of justice under the same, it shall be lawful for the President, and it shall be his duty to take such measures, by the employment of the militia or the land and naval forces of the United States, or of either, or by other means, as he may deem necessary for the suppression of such insurrection, domestic violence, or combinations; and any person who shall be arrested under the provisions of this and the preceding section shall be delivered to the marshal of the proper district, to be dealt with according to law. That whenever in any State or part of a State the unlawful combinations named in the preceding section of this act shall be organized and armed, and so numerous and powerful as to be able, by violence, to either overthrow or set at defiance the constituted authorities of such State, and of the United States within such State, or when the constituted authorities are in complicity with, or shall connive at the unlawful purposes of, such powerful and armed combinations; and whenever, by reason of either or all of the causes aforesaid, the conviction of such offenders and the preservation of the public safety shall become in such district impracticable, in every such case such combinations shall be deemed a rebellion against the government of the United States, and during the continuance of such rebeliion, and within the limits of the district which shall be so under the sway thereof, such limits to be prescribed by proclamation, it shall be lawful for the President of the United States, when in his judgment the public safety shall require it, to suspend the privileges of the writ of habeas corpus, to the end that such rebellion may be overthrown: Provided, That the President shail first have made proclamation, as now provided by law, commanding such insurgents to disperse. That any person or persons, having knowledge that any of the wrongs conspired to be done and mentioned in the second section of this act are about to be committed, and having power to prevent or aid in preventing the same, shall neglect or refuse so to do, and such wrongful act shall be committed, such person or persons shall be liable to the person injured, or his legal representatives, for all damages caused by any such wrongful act which such first-named person or persons by reasonable diligence could have prevented: and such damages may be recovered in an action on the case in the proper circuit court of the United States, and any number of persons guilty of such wrongful neglect or refusal may be joined as defendants in such action: Provided, That such action shall be commenced within one year after such cause of action shall have accrued; and if the death of any person shall be caused by any such wrongful act and neglect, the legal representatives of such deceased person shall have such action therefor, and may recover not exceeding five thousand dollars damages therein, for the ben efit of the widow of such deceased person, if any there be, or if there be no widow, for the benefit of the next of kin of such deceased person. |