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of any other description whatsoever appurtenant thereto, it shall be necessary to use earth, timber, stone or gravel, or any other material to be found on any of the lands adjacent or near thereto, and the said president and directors, or their agent, cannot procure the same for the works aforesaid by private contract of the proprietor or owner, or in case the owner should be a feme covert, or non-compos, or under age, or out of the state or county, the same proceedings in all respects shall be had as in the case beforementioned of the assessment and condemnation of the lands required for the said canal, or the works appurtenant thereto.

16. And be it enacted, That it shall be the duty of the company hereby incorporated, to cut, make, and construct, the said canal, with good and sufficient locks, on the most improved plan for expedition in the use thereof, and with a width of not less than forty feet at the surface of the water therein, or of twenty-eight feet at the bottom thereof unless the quality of the soil shall require a narrow base to admit of a sufficient slope to preserve the banks from sliding down, and sufficient to admit, at all seasons, the navigation of boats and rafts, with a depth of four feet water at the least; and wherever wastes shall be essential to the security of the said canal, and in no other situation whatever, along the same, the waste water of the said canal may be, from time to time, sold or disposed of by the said company for the purpose of supplying such works and machinery as require a water power. And along one side at least of the said canal, and such aqueducts as it may render necessary, there shall be provided throughout its whole extent, a towing path of sufficient breadth to apply the power of horses to the navigation thereof.

17. And be it enacted, That it shall and may be lawful for any of the said stockholders to transfer his or her shares, by deed executed before two witnesses, and registered, after the proof of the execution thereof, in the company's books, and not otherwise, except by devise, which devise shall also be exhibited to the president and directors, and registered in the company's books before the devisee or devisees shall be entitled to draw any part of the profits from the said tolls or dividends: Provided, That no transfer shall be made, except for one or more whole share or shares, and not for part of such share or shares: and that no share or shares shall, at any time, be sold, conveyed, or held in trust for the use and benefit, or in the name of another, whereby the said president and directors, or the stockholders of the said company, or any of them, shall or may be challenged, or made to answer concerning any such trust, but that every person appearing as aforesaid to be a stockholder, shall, as to the others of the said company, be, to every intent, taken absolutely as such; but, as between any trustee and the person for whose benefit any trust shall be created, the common remedy may be pursued.

18. And be it enacted, That if the said capital, and the other aids already granted by this act, shall prove insufficient, it shall and may be lawful for the said company, from time to time, to increase the said capital by the addition of so many whole shares as shall be judged necessary by the said stockholders, or a majority of them, present at any general meeting of the said company; and the said president and directors, or a majority of them, are hereby empowered and required, after giving at least two months previous notice thereof, in at least four of the newspapers printed in Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland and the District of Columbia, to open books in the before mentioned states and district, for receiving and entering such additional subscriptions, in which the stockholders of the said company for the

time being, shall, and are hereby declared to have the preference of all others, for the first thirty days after the said books shall be opened as aforesaid, of taking and subscribing for so many whole shares, as any of them shall choose; and the said president and directors are hereby required to observe, in all other respects, the same rules, therein, as are by this act prescribed for receiving and adjusting the first subscriptions, and in like manner to return, under the hands of any three or more of them, an exact list of such additional subscriptions, with the sums subscribed, to the public authorities, as aforesaid, to be, by them, preserved as aforesaid: and all stockholders of such additional shares shall, and are hereby declared to be, from thenceforward, incorporated into the said company.

19. And be it enacted, That whenever it shall become necessary to subject the lands of any individual to the purposes provided for in this act, and their consent cannot be obtained, it shall and may be lawful for the company to enter upon such lands, and proceed to the execution of such works, as may be requisite; and that the pendency of any proceedings in any suit in the nature of a writ of ad quod damnum, or any other proceedings, shall not hinder or delay the progress of the work; and it shall be the duty of every court to give precedence to controversies which may arise between the company created by this act, and the proprietors of land sought to be condemned for public uses, and to determine them in preference to all other

causes.

20. And be it enacted, That the said canal shall be, and the same is hereby, divided into two sections, to be denominated first and second, or eastern and western, respectively; that the first, or eastern section, shall begin at the District of Columbia, on tide water, and terminate at or near the bank of Savage river, or creek, which empties into the North branch of the Patowmac, at the base of the Allegheny mountain; that the second, or western section, shall commence at the said termination, and extend along the valley of Savage river, or creek, so far as the same, or any branch thereof, as may reach some convenient point thereon, for connecting the eastern and western waters, by a tunnel through, or an open cut across the dividing ridge between the same; and thence after crossing the said dividing ridge, shall proceed to the highest steam-boat navigation of the Ohio river, or of some one tributary stream thereof, in such direction as, in the opinion of the said president and directors, shall be best calculated for the attainment of the end set forth in the preamble of this act that the said president and directors shall first construct the eastern section aforesaid, out of the capital stock hereinbefore mentioned, and shall next proceed to construct with all possible dispatch, the western section thereof. In case the said company shall not begin the said work within two years after the company shall have been formed, or if the work having been so begun, shall not be diligently prosecuted, so that one hundred miles of the said canal, with the adequate locks and incidental improvements, shall not be completed, and in fit order for navigation, in the term of five years from the commencement of the work, then all interest of the said company in the navigation and tolls, shall cease and determine, and their charter shall be thereafter taken to be null and void; and so, in like manner, shall the said charter be null and void, if the entire eastern section be not completed in the term of twelve years from the said commencement. And should the said company fail to begin the western section of the said canal, in two years after the time allowed as aforesaid for the completion of the eastern section; or, having begun the western section, shall fail to complete the same in six years after

such beginning, then all right, title, and interest of the said company, in the said western section, shall cease and determine; and the several states aforesaid shall have full authority to incorporate another company for the completion of such section, or to complete the same in any other mode that they may deem expedient. And if, after the completion of the said canal. and locks, the president and directors shall fail to keep the same in repair for twelve months at any time, then, in like manner, the interest of the company in the navigation and tolls shall cease, and their charter shall be forfeited.

21. And be it further enacted, That the right to the waters of the river Patowmac, for the purpose of any lateral canal or canals, which the state of Virginia or Maryland may authorise to be made in connection with the said canal, is reserved to the said states respectively; that a similar right is reserved to the state of Pennsylvania, in relation to the rivers and streams within the territory of that state the waters of which may be used in supplying the western section of the said canal; that the government of the United States shall retain the power to extend the said canal in or through the District of Columbia, on either or both sides of the river Patowmac: Provided, That, before this act shall take effect, the Congress of the United States shall authorise the states of Virginia and Maryland, or either of them, to take and continue a canal from any point of the above-named canal, or the termination thereof, through the territory of the District of Columbia, or any part thereof, to the territory of the said states, or either of them, in any direction they may deem proper, upon the same terms and conditions, and with all the rights, privileges, and powers of every kind whatsoever, that the company incorporated by this act have to make the Chesapeake and Ohio canal. And provided also, That in taking or extending such lateral canal or canals through the District of Columbia, by either of the said states, no impediment or injury be done to the navigation of the said Chesapeake and Ohio canal.

22. This act, or so much thereof as respects the canal and works designed to be constructed in the District of Columbia, and the states of Virginia and Maryland, shall take effect, with such necessary modification in the construction thereof, as shall fit it for such limited application or use, upon the assent of the Congress of the United States, and the legislature of Maryland being given thereto, and upon its receiving the further assent of the legislature of Pennsylvania, the whole and every section and part thereof shall be valid and in full force and operation.

23. Be it further enacted. That the assent of the Congress of the United States, required by the first section of this act, and the authority conferred by the fourteenth section, is understood and taken, to relate only to their authority as the legislature of the District of Columbia.

24. Be it further enacted, That all acts and parts of acts coming within the purview of this act, shall be, and the same are hereby, repealed.

RICHMOND, Dec. 30, 1824.

The foregoing is a true copy of an act of the general assembly of VirWM. MUNFORD, Keeper of the Rolls.

ginia.

ACT OF THE STATE OF MARYLAND.

An act to confirm an act of the General Assembly of the State of Virginia, entitled An act incorporating the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company.

Whereas the General Assembly of Virginia have, heretofore, at the December session of the said General Assembly, in the year eighteen hundred and twenty-three, passed an act, entitled "An act incorporating the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company," in the substance, or words following:

[See the preceding act.]

Therefore, be it enacted by the General Assembly of Maryland, That the said act of the general assembly of Virginia be, and the same is hereby accepted, assented to, and confirmed.

And be it further enacted and declared, That, by confirming and accepting the act of Virginia, it is not intended by the legislature of Maryland, to deny to the Congress of the United States the constitutional power to legislate on the subjects of roads and canals. And for the purpose of removing all doubt as to the right of the state of Maryland to intersect the said Chesapeake and Ohio canal, for the purpose of conducting a lateral canal or canals to Baltimore or elsewhere in the state of Maryland, from that part of the said Chesapeake and Ohio canal, which shall be within the District of Columbia

Be it further enacted and declared, That the said act of Virginia has been accepted and confirmed by the legislature of Maryland, on the express condition, that the act of Congress contemplated by the twenty-first section of the Virginia act, shall direct and provide some safe and practicable mode, whereby such lateral canal or canals may be secured to the state of Maryland, and whereby also it may be determined whether such lateral canal or canals will injure the said Chesapeake and Ohio canal, within the meaning and intention of the said twenty-first section of the Virginia act. We hereby certify, that the foregoing is a true copy of the original act, as passed both branches of the legislature at December session, eighteen hundred and twenty-four.

Annapolis, Jan. 31, 1825.

WM. KILTY, Clerk Sen. of Md.
JOHN BREWER, Clerk House Del.

ACT OF THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES.

An act confirming an act of the Legislature of Virginia, entitled "An act incorporating the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company," and an act of the state of Maryland, confirming the same.

Be it enacted, &c. That the act of the legislature of the state of Virginia, entitled "An act incorporating the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company," be, and the same is hereby, ratified and confirmed, so far as may be necessary for the purpose of enabling any company, that may hereafter be formed by the authority of said act of incorporation, to carry into effect the

provisions thereof, in the District of Columbia, within the exclusive jurisdiction of the United States, and no further.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That, should the state of Virginia or Maryland desire, at any time, to avail itself of the right secured to it, by the twenty-first section of the act aforesaid, to take and continue a canal, from any point of the Chesapeake and Ohio canal, to any other point within the territory of the District of Columbia, or through the same, on application to the President of the United States, by the executive of a state, the President is authorised and empowered to depute three skilful commissioners of the United States' Corps of Engineers, to survey and examine so much of the route of such canal as may effect, in any manner, the navigation of the Chesapeake and Ohio canal. The said commissioners, or a majority of them, shall ascertain, as far as practicable, whether the canal proposed to be constructed by the state aforesaid will injure or impede the navigation of the Chesapeake and Ohio canal, and report to the President of the United States the facts and reasons on which they may ground their judgment thereupon; which report shall be submitted to the Congress of the United States, at their session next ensuing the date thereof, for their decision thereon; and, if Congress shall be of opinion that the said canal may be cut in the manner proposed as aforesaid, without impeding or injuring the navigation of the Chesapeake and Ohio canal, the same shall be conclu

sive thereon.

H. CLAY,

Speaker of the House of Representatives.
JOHN GAILLARD,
President of the Senate, pro tempore.

WASHINGTON, March 3, 1825-Approved:

JAMES MONROE.

PROCEEDINGS OF THE GENERAL MEETING OF THE POTOWMAC COMPANY.

GEORGETOWN, D. C. 16th May, 1825.

At a special meeting of the stockholders of the Potowmac Company, held this day at Semmes' tavern, previous notice thereof having been given conformable to law

The following resolutions were unanimously adopted:

That this meeting, having duly considered the act of the general assembly of the state of Virginia, passed at the December session thereof, in the year 1823, entitled "An act incorporating the Chesapeake and Ohio canal company," and the acts of the general assembly of Maryland, and of the Congress of the United States, confirming the same, and being willing and desirous that the charter should be granted and confirmed to the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company, do hereby declare the full and free assent of the Potowmac Company, to the said act incorporating the said Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company, and to all the provisions thereof.

That the president of the Potowmac Company be, and he is hereby, required to deliver to the executives of the states of Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania, respectively, and to the secretary of the treasury of the United States, copies of the aforegoing declaration of assent and corporate

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