Thirtieth Congress,
thiFirst Session,
BE IT ENACTED
By the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in
Congress Assembled.

That the act of May fifteenth, eighteen hundred and twenty, entitled, “An act to incorporate the inhabitants of the city of Washington, and to repeal all acts heretofore passed for that purpose,” and the act of May twenty-sixth, eighteen hundred and twenty-four, entitled “An act supplementary to ‘an act to incorporate the inhabitants of the city of Washington,’ passed the fifteenth of May, one thousand eight hundred and twenty, and for other purposes,” and the act or acts supplemental or additional to said acts which were in force on the fourteenth day of May, eighteen hundred and forty, or which may, at the passing of this act, be in force, be, and the same are hereby, continued in force for the term of twenty years from the date hereof, or until Congress shall by law determine otherwise, with the alternations, additions, explanations, and amendments following, that is to say:

Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That the said corporation shall have full power and authority to lay and collect a tax not exceeding three-fourths of one per centum per annum upon the assessed value of all stocks

---

---

which may be owned and possessed by any person whatever in any banking, insurance, or other incorporated or unincorporated company in the city of Washington; and to compel all such banking, insurance, or other incorporated or unincorporated company, to furnish, when so required to do, within ten days thereafter, a full and complete list of the names of the stockholders in such company, and the amount of stock owned by each, under a penalty not exceeding fifty dollars for each and every week such company shall neglect or refuse or fail to furnish the same. And in default of payment of the tax due on said stock by the banking, insurance or other company, or by the holder or holders of the stock, the said corporation shall have full power and authority to sell the said stock, or so many shares thereof as shall be sufficient to pay the taxes due thereon, and costs of collection, as provided in the case of personal property.

The said corporation shall also have power to lay and collect a tax not exceeding three fourths of one per centum per annum on the assessed value of all bonds and mortgages, of stocks of all kinds, and all public and private securities, and on every description of property within the said city, or which may be owned or held by the inhabitants thereof, except the wearing apparel and necessary tools and implements used in carrying on the trade or occupation of any person; and to compel persons to furnish, when required by the assessors,

---

---

a full and correct list of all property by law taxable, held by them, and to punish with suitable fines and penalties, persons refusing or omitting to furnish such lists. The said corporation shall have power to lay and collect a school tax upon every free white male citizen of the age of twenty-one years and upwards, of one dollar per annum; to provide for licensing, taxing and regulating livery stables, and wholesale and retail dealers, in a ratio according to the annual average amount of the capital invested in the business of such wholesale and retail dealers; to license, tax, and regulate agencies of all kinds of insurance companies; to tax private bankers, brokers, and money lenders not exceeding three-fourths of one per centum per annum on the assessed amount of capital employed in the business of said private bankers, brokers, and money lenders; to make all necessary regulations respecting hackney carriages and the rates of fare of the same, and the rates of hauling by cartmen, waggoners, carmen, and dray-men, and the rates of commission of auctioneers; to regulate and graduate the licenses of non-resident merchants and traders, and the taxes on the same; to regulate and establish fish wharves and docks; to restrain and prohibit gaming-houses and bawdy-houses; to punish those who may sell intoxicating liquors without having obtained license therefor, by fines not less than five dollars, and in default of the payment thereof by imprisonment and labor in the

---

---

work-house for a term not exceeding ninety days; to provide for the punishing, by fines and penalties, and by confinement to labor in the work-house, any person and all persons who shall molest or disturb any church or other place of worship while the congregation are engaged in any religious exercises or proceedings; to provide for the weighing of all kinds of live stock brought into the city: to cause to be pulled down unsafe, dilapidated, or dangerous buildings; to take up and re-lay foot pavements and paved carriage-ways, and to keep them in repair, and to lay and collect taxes for paying the expenses thereof on the property fronting on such foot-ways and carriage ways: to lay and collect taxes for the support of public schools; to cause new alleys to be opened into the squares, and to open, change, or close those already laid out, upon the application of the owners of more than one-half of the property in such squares, subject to the second proviso of the eighth section of the act of May the fifteenth, eighteen hundred and twenty, incorporating the inhabitants of the city of Washington. And the said corporation shall have full power and authority to make all necessary laws for the protection of public & private property, the preservation of order, the safety of persons, and the observance of decency in the streets, avenues, alleys, public spaces, and other places in the said city, and for the punishment of all persons violating the same, as well as for the punishment of persons guilty of public profanity & prostitution.

Sec. 3. And be it further Enacted, That at the first general election held after the passage of this act, a board of assessors, to consist of one member from each ward, shall be elected by the qualified voters therein, to serve for two years, ^X^ and the returns of election for assessors shall be made in the same manner and form as the returns of the election for members of the board of aldermen and board of common council; and the person having the greatest number of legal votes in each ward for assessor, shall be duly elected assessor; but in case two or more persons, highest in vote, shall have and equal number of votes, the commissioners of election for the ward in which such equality shall exist, shall decide the choice by lot. No person who is not eligible to a seat in the board of aldermen or ^board of^ common council, shall [be] eligible to election as assessor. And on the first Monday of May next succeeding the first election of assessors under this act, the said board, or a majority of the members thereof, shall meet in the city hall, and, in presence of the mayor and register, shall draw by lot the names of three members thereof, if the number of wards be seven, or if the number of wards exceed seven, the name of one-half, as near as may be, of the members of said board; and the members whose names shall be thus drawn, shall thereupon cease to be members of said board, and at the next general election a member shall be elected to serve for two years in each of the wards in which the members so drawn shall have been elected; and at every regular annual election thereafter in such wards as the time of

---

the assessors in about to expire, an assessor shall be elected to serve for two years. No person holding any other office under the corporation shall be elected to or hold the office of assessor. In the event of the death, resignation, inability, or refusal to serve, of any person elected an assessor, the vacancy shall be filled immediately by the board of aldermen and board of common council, in joint meeting, in which manner all vacancies in the board of assessors shall be filled: Provided, That until the assessors, authorized to be elected by this act, shall have been duly elected and qualified to enter upon their duties, full power and authority are hereby given to the said corporation to provide for the temporary appointment of assessors to perform the duties required of the assessors to be elected under this act. ^√^ The board of assessors shall assess and value, and make return of all and every species of property by law taxable, at such times, and under such regulations, as the said corporation ^√^ shall prescribe, and shall make return of all persons subject to a school tax in the said city, under such regulations as the said corporation shall prescribe; and if the said assessors, or either of them, shall prescribe; and if the said assessors, or either of them, shall refuse or wilfully neglect to assess and value, and make return of all and every species of property by law taxable, which may be known to them, or either of them, or come ^X^ to their knowledge, or shall refuse or wilfully neglect to make return of any person subject to a school tax, they, or the one so offending, shall be subject to a fine not exceeding one hundred dollars for each offence, at the discretion of the circuit court of the District of Columbia for the county of Washington, and shall

---

thereafter be incapable of holding any office under the corporation, and the board of aldermen and board of common council may, by joint resolution, remove any assessor from office for any misconduct in office.

Sec. 4. And be it further Enacted, That the register, collector, and surveyor of the said city shall severally be elected on the first Monday in June next, and on the same day in every second year thereafter, at the same time and place, in the same manner, and by the persons qualified to vote for mayor and members of the board of aldermen and board of common council; Provided, That, if the said first Monday in June next shall be the regular day for the election of mayor of the said city, then the next election thereafter, of register, collector, and surveyor, shall take place on the same day in the following year, and then on the same day in every second year thereafter, as above provided; and the commissioners of election shall make out duplicate certificates of the result of the election for register, collector, and surveyor, and shall return one to the board of aldermen, and the other to the board of common council on the Monday next ensuing the day of the election; and the persons having the greatest number of votes for those offices respectively, shall be register, collector, or surveyor, as the case may be; but in case two or more persons highest in vote shall have an equal number of votes for either of said offices, then it shall be lawful for the board of aldermen and board of common council to proceed forthwith, by ballot, in joint meeting, to determine the choice between such persons; and the said register, collector, and surveyor

---

shall, respectively, hold their offices until their respective successors are duly elected and qualified, unless sooner removed from office; and full power and authority are hereby granted to the corporation of Washington to pass all such laws as may be necessary to define and regulate the respective duties, powers, and authority of the said register, collector, and surveyor, and also to prescribe the amount of bond and security to be given to the said corporation by each, before entering upon the duties of their respective offices, and generally to pass all such laws as may be necessary to insure an efficient and faithful discharge of the duties of their respective offices by the said register, collector, and surveyor; and in case the said officers or either of them, shall fail or refuse to comply with any law, resolution, or order of the said corporation, or shall fail or refuse to obey any order of the mayor of the said city, or shall fail to discharge the duties of their respective offices with fidelity and a strict regard to the interests of the said corporation, or shall prove unable or incompetent, from any cause whatever, to discharge such duties, or shall be guilty of any malversation in office, or shall be convicted of any high crime or misdemeanor, it shall be lawful for the majority of the board of aldermen and board of common council, by joint resolution, to remove such officer, and to order an election to fill the vacancy; and in case of the refusal or failure of any person elected to either of said offices to accept of the

---

same, or to give such bond and security as may be required by said corporation within twenty days after his election, or in case of the death, resignation, or removal from the said city of any person elected to, or holding either of said offices, it shall be lawful for the board of aldermen and board [of?] common council to declare said office vacant, and to order an election to fill the vacancy.

And in all cases where it shall become necessary to hold an election to fill a vacancy in either of said offices, the same regulations shall be observed as to the appointment of commissioners to hold said elections, and as to holding the elections and the returns of the same as are observed at the regular elections: Provided, That authority is hereby given to the mayor of the said city to appoint temporarily, under such regulations as the said corporation may prescribe, some discreet person to discharge the duties of such vacant office, until an election can be had, and a successor duly elected and qualified to enter upon his duties.

Sec. 5.

Sec. 5. And be it further enacted, That every free white male citizen of the United States, who shall have attained the age of twenty-one years, and shall have resided in the city of Washington one year immediately preceding the day of election, and shall be a Resident of the ward in which he shall offer to vote, and shall have been Returned on the books of the corporation during the year ending the thirty-first of December next preceding the day of election, as subject to a school-tax for that year, (except persons now compos mentis, vagrants, paupers, or persons who shall have been convicted of any infamous crime,) and who shall have paid the school taxes, and all taxes on personal property, due from him, shall be entitled to vote for mayor, members of the board of aldermen and board of common council, and assessors, and for every officer authorized to be elected at any election under this act, or the act or acts to which this is amendatory or suplementary: Provided, That if, during the year ending on the thirty-first day of December next preceding the day of the first election after the passage of this act, no persons shall have been returned on the books of the said corporation as subject to a school tax, then all persons who shall have been Returned on the books of the said corporation as subject to a school tax before the day of the said first election, and who shall in all other respect be qualified under this act to vote, and who shall have paid the said school tax and all taxes due on personal property, shall be entitled to vote at the said first election after the passage of this act. And if any person shall buy or sell a vote,

---

or shall vote more than once at any corporation election held in pursuance of law, or shall give or receive any consideration therefor in money, goods, or any ^other^ thing of value, or shall promise any valuable consideration, or vote in consideration of such promise, he shall be disqualified forever thereafter from voting and holding any office under said corporation; and on complaint thereof to the attorney of the United States for the District of Columbia, it shall be the duty of said attorney to proceed against such offender or offenders, by indictment and trial, as in other criminal cases; and if found guilty, it shall be the duty of the court to sentence him to pay a fine of not less than ten dollars, and to imprisonment not more than two months nor less than ten days.

Sec. 6. And be it further enacted, That in case of the Refusal of any person to accept the office of mayor upon his election thereto, or of his death, Resignation, inability, or Removal from the city, the board of alderman and board of common council shall assemble in joint meeting and elect another in his place, to serve for the Remainder of the term, or during such disability; but in case of temporary absence from the city, or of sickness, the mayor may, in writing, depute the president of the board of aldermen to act as mayor during such temporary absence or sickness.

Sec. 7. And be it further enacted, That so much of the tenth section of the act incorporating the inhabitants of the city of Washington, approved May fifteenth eighteen hundred and twenty, as is in the following words, viz: “That real property, whether improved or unimproved, in the city of Washington, on which two or more year’s taxes shall have Remained due and unpaid, or on which any special tax, imposed by virtue of authority of the provisions of this act, shall have Remained unpaid for two or more years after the same shall have become due, or so much thereof not less than a lot, (when the property on which the tax has accrued is not less than that quantity,) as may be necessary to pay any such taxes, with all legal costs and charges arising thereon, may be sold at public sale to satisfy the corporation therefor,” be and the same is hereby amended, so as to read as follows, viz: “That real property, whether improved or unimproved, in the city of Washington, on which one or more years’s taxes shall have become due and Remain unpaid, or on which any special tax, imposed by virtue of authority of the provisions of this act, shall have become due and Remain unpaid, or so much thereof, not less than a lot, (when the property on which the tax has accrued is not less than that quantity,) as may be necessary to pay any such taxes, with all interests, costs and charges arising thereon, may be sold at public sale to satisfy the corporation therefor.” And so much of the third proviso of the tenth section of the said act incorporating the inhabitants of the city of Washington,

---

approved May the fifteenth, eighteen hundred and twenty, as is in the following words, viz: “That no sale shall be made in pursuance of this section of any improved property whereon there is personal property of sufficient value to pay the said taxes,” be, and the same is hereby, Repealed. And the authority given to the collector in the eleventh section of said act to postpone the sale of any property to a future day “for want of bidders,” shall be so construed as to authorize the postponement for any other Reasonable cause, if, in the opinion of the mayor, the collec^t^or, or other officer duly authorized, there shall be other reasonable cause for such postponement; but public notice shall in all cases be given of such postponement, and the sales made at such postponed time shall be equally valid as if made the day first designated for such sale; and no sale of any Real property for taxes hereafter made shall be impaired or made void by Reason of any error of the mayor, or other officer of the corporation, in making a calculation or computation of the amount of taxes due, the expenses attendant on the advertisement and sale, or of the purchase money and the interest thereon notwithstanding the sum erroneously calculated or computed may have been paid by the purchaser, his heirs, or assigns; but all such sales, and the deeds which may be granted on the certificates then issued, shall be valid and binding as if no such error had been made; and it shall be lawful for the heirs or assigns of any purchaser or purchasers of property sold for taxes in the said city, to Receive, do, or perform anything which, by the said act of the fifteenth of May,

---

eighteen hundred and twenty, incorporating the inhabitants of the city of Washington, or by any act or acts supplementary to or in execution of the same, it may be lawful for such purchaser or purchasers to receive, do, or perform.

Sec. 8. And be it further enacted, That the said corporation shall have power to cause to be made out, plats of all the squares in the city of Washington, on which shall be shown the lines of all the subdivisions of said squares as the same shall actually exist at the date of the completion of the plat of each square, and to prescribe and regulate the manner in which description shall be made of all real estate sold or transferred in the said city: Provided, That the said plats shall be made out & drawn upon a uniform scale of not less than one inch to fifty feet: and that the method of description of real estate sold or transferred within the corporate limits which shall be prescribed by the said corporation shall be such that the plats shall, at all times, show the lines of property as actually existing in the squares; and the office of the surveyor of the city of Washington shall be the

---

---

legal office of record of the plats of all property in the city of Washington.

Sec. 9. And be it further enacted, That the school tax which may be levied and collected in pursuance of the powers in this act given, shall constitute a fund, or be added to any other fund now or hereafter to be constituted by any act of the corporation, for the establishment and support of common schools, and for no other purpose, under such regulations as may from time to time be established and provided by the corporation.

Sec. 10. And be it further enacted, That the corporation shall not have power to increase the present funded debt of the said corporation, either by borrowing money or otherwise, unless it shall be agreed to do so by two-thirds of the legal voters in the said city at an annual election, and ths said corporation shall annually apply a sum not less than ten thousand dollars of its revenues to the redemption of the present debt of the corporation.

Sec. 11. And be it further enacted, That all taxes, except taxes on real property, imposed by virtue of the powers granted by this act, or the acts to which this is amendatory or supplementary, in default of payment thereof, within the time limited by act of the incorporation for payment, may be collected by distress

---

---

and sale of the goods and chattles and personal effects of the person or persons chargeable therewith, under such regulations and limitations as the corporation may prescribe; but no such sale shall be made unless ten days’ previous notice thereof be given in some newspaper printed and published in the city of Washington.

Sec. 12. And be it further enacted, That the commissioner of public buildings, or other officer having charge and authority over the lands and property of the United States lying within the city of Washington, shall, from time to time, cause to be opened and improved such avenues and streets, or parts or portions thereof, as the President of the United States, upon application of the corporation of the said city, shall deem necessary for the public convenience, and direct to be done; and he shall defray the expenses thereof out of any money arising, or which shall have arisen, from the sale of lots in the city of Washington, belonging, or which may have belonged to the United States, and from no other fund. And it shall be the duty of the said commissioner, or other United States officer as aforesaid, upon the application of the mayor, to repair and keep in repair the pavements, water gutters, water-ways, and flay foot ways, which have been made or shall be made opposite or along the public squares, reservations, or other property belonging to the United States; as also, on like application to repair, and keep in repair

---

---

such streets and avenues, or parts thereof, as may have been, or shall hereafter be, opened and improved by the United States,—the expense of all such repairs to be paid out of the fund before mentioned.

Sec. 13. And be it further enacted, That the Commissioner of Public Buildings be, and he is hereby, required to perform the duties required of the city commissioner by the fourteenth section of the act of the twenty-sixth of May, eighteen hundred and twenty-four, supplementary to the act of the fifteenth of May, eighteen hundred and twenty, incorporating the inhabitants of the city of Washington. And it shall be the duty of the Commissioner of Public Buildings, within ninety days after the sale of any lots or squares belonging to the United States in the city of Washington, to report the fact to the corporation of Washington, giving the date of sale, the number of the lot and square, the name of the purchaser or purchasers, and the said lots or squares shall be liable to taxation by the said corporation from the date of such sale. And no open space, public reservation , or other public ground in the said city shall be occupied by any private person, or for any private purposes whatever.

Sec. 14. And be it further enacted, That the justices of the Peace, whether they be members of the board of aldermen or board of common council or not, who may be selected from time to time by the said corporation, to enforce

---

---

the police regulations and penal laws of the said city, as also to issue warrants and to hear and determine cases within the jurisdiction of justices of the peace, in which the mayor, board of aldermen, and board of common council of the said city shall be plaintiffs, shall have power to issue all such warrants, and all other warrants or processes deemed necessary and proper in cases of violations of the police regulations and penal laws of the corporation, and to hear and determine all such cases, and, under the orders of the corporation, to issue execution or other final process thereon; and the said justices shall also have power to compel the attendance of witnesses by attachment, and to punish them by fine not exceeding ten dollars, or by imprisonment not exceeding ten days, for refusing obedience to a summons.

Sec. 15. And be it further enacted, That hereafter the justices of the peace for the county of Washington, in the district of Columbia, shall be appointed for three years; and upon indictment and conviction of any justice of the peace, before any court of competent jurisdiction, of incompetency, habitual drunkeness, corruption in office, or of any other wilful misconduct in the discharge of his duties as justice of the peace, his commission shall be void, and he shall cease to exercise the office and powers of justice of the peace; and for all criminal process or business issued or tried by or before any justice of the peace in the city and

---

---

county of Washington, in the District of Columbia, the said justice and the constable who shall execute the process shall respectively be entitled to charge and receive the same fees as are authorized to be charged and received in the case of process issued & served by them respectively in cases of small debts; and the said costs shall be certified by the said justices to the district attorney, for his revision and approval, and when approved, shall be paid by the marshal of the District of Columbia.

Sec. 16. And be it further enacted, That, in addition to the seven members now authorized to be appointed to the levy court of the county of Washington from and after May, eighteen hundred and forty-eight, the President of the United States is hereby authorized and required annually to appoint from additional members from the city of Washington; and the said court shall thereafter consist of eleven members.

Sec. 17. And be it further enacted, That the corporation of the said city of Washington shall have full power and authority to pass all laws which may be needful and necessary to carry into full and complete affect the powers granted to the said corporation, or to any of its officers of servants, by this act, or by the act or acts to which this act is amendatory or supplementary. And all acts or parts of acts in conflict with the provisions of this act be, and the same are hereby, repealed.