Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the state of Alabama shall be, and the same is hereby, divided into three districts in manner following, to wit:

The counties of Mobile, Washington, Baldwin, Sumpter, Clarke, Marengo, Green, Pickens, Wilcox, Monroe, Conccuh, shall compose one district, to be called the southern district, and a court shall be held for the said district, as heretofore, at Mobile.

The counties of Montgomery, Autauga, Coosa, Tallapoosa, Chambers, Talladega, Randolph, Macon, Russell, Barbour, Pike, Henry, Dale, Coffee, Covington, Lowndes, Dallas, Perry, Bibb, Shelby, and Tuscaloosa, shall hereafter compose of one district, to be called the middle district, and a court shall be held for the said district at Montgomery. And the residue of the counties of said State shall hereafter compose the northern district of Alabama, and a court shall be held for the same, as heretofore, at Huntsville.

Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That the next term of the District Court for the said middle district, and every term thereafter, shall be held at Montgomery; and the clerk and marshal of said middle district are hereby required, forthwith, to remove all the books, and papers, and records, belonging to their respective offices from Tuscaloosa to Montgomery.

Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That all causes at law or in chancery, pending in the said District Courts at Mobile and Huntsville, or in the Circuit Court of the United States at Mobile, in which the defendant or defendants reside in the middle district (as hereby established) at the time of serving process, shall be transferred for trial to the District Court for the said middle district, and be proceeded in, heard, adjudged, and determined in the same manner as though originally commenced or prosecuted in the said court; and it shall be the duty of the clerks of the said courts at Huntsville and Mobile safely to transmit to the clerk of the District Court at Montgomery the original papers in all cases hereby ordered to be transferred, together with a transcript of all orders and other proceedings had thereon.

Sec. 4. And be it further enacted, That all laws or parts of laws contravening or opposed to the provisions of this act, be, and the same are hereby, repealed.

Approved, August 7, 1848.