Or the Presi dent may nego tiate with Texas

for admission, and

Texas to be admitted, as soon as Texas

and the U.S.

terms.

mitted into the Union, after ceding to the United States, all public edifices, fortifications, barracks, ports and harbors, navy and navy-yards, docks, magazines, arms, armaments, and all other property and means pertaining to the public defence belonging to said Republic of Texas, shall retain all the public funds, debts, taxes, and dues of every kind, which may belong to or be due and owing said republic; and shall also retain all the vacant and unappropriated lands lying within its limits, to be applied to the payment of the debts and liabilities of said Republic of Texas, and the residue of said lands, after discharging said debts and liabilities, to be disposed of as said State may direct; but in no event are said debts and liabilities to become a charge upon the Government of the United States. Third. New States, of convenient size, not exceeding four in number, in addition to said State of Texas, and having sufficient population, may hereafter, by the consent of said State, be formed out of the territory thereof, which shall be entitled to admission under the provisions of the federal constitution. And such States as may be formed out of that portion of said territory lying south of thirty-six degrees thirty minutes north latitude, commonly known as the Missouri compromise line, shall be admitted into the Union with or without slavery, as the people of each State asking admission may desire. And in such State or States as shall be formed out of said territory north of said Missouri compromise line, slavery, or involuntary servitude, (except for crime,) shall be prohibited.

3. And be it further resolved, That if the President of the United States shall in his judgment and discretion deem it most advisable, instead of proceeding to submit the foregoing resolution to the Republic of Texas, as an overture on the part of the United States for admission, to negotiate with that Republic; then,

Be it resolved, That a State, to be formed out of the present Republic of Texas, with suitable extent and boundaries, and with two representatives in Congress, until the next apportionment of representation, shall agree upon the be admitted into the Union, by virtue of this act, on an equal footing with the existing States, as soon as the terms and conditions of such admission, and the cession of the remaining Texian territory to the United States shall be agreed upon by the Governments of Texas and the United States: And that the sum of one hundred thousand dollars Appropriation. be, and the same is hereby, appropriated to defray the expenses of missions and negotiations, to agree upon the terms of said admission and cession, either by treaty to be submitted to the Senate, or by articles to be submitted to the two houses of Congress, as the President may direct.

APPROVED, March 1, 1845.

March 3, 1845. No. 9. A Resolution directing an examination of Putnam's ploughing and dredging machine.

examined and tested.

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United Machine to be States of America in Congress assembled, That the Secretary of War be, and he is hereby authorized and directed to examine a machine invented by, and patented to the late Dr. James R. Putnam of New Or leans, called a Ploughing and Dredging Machine for the removal of obstructions and bars in Rivers and Harbors, &c., and to appoint a Board of three officers to test the practical utility of said machine. APPROVED, March 3, 1845.

March 3, 1845. No. 10. A Resolution to authorize the Attorney General to contract for copies of a proposed edition of the Laws and Treaties of the United States. Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Attorney General

Attorney General authorized Little & Brown.

to contract with

Proviso, conditions of con

is hereby authorized and directed to contract, on behalf of the General
Government, with Messieurs Little and Brown, for one thousand copies
of their proposed edition of the Laws and Treaties of the United States,
at a price not exceeding three dollars and fifty cents a volume: Pro-
vided, nevertheless, That the contract aforesaid shall be made upon
the
terms and conditions following, that is to say: First, That the work
shall be executed, from stereotype plates, in the style proposed by the tract.
said Little and Brown in their memorial presented to Congress at the
present session thereof, in volumes, well bound, of not less than eight
hundred super-royal octavo pages, with a very wide text, and a syllabus
of each section in small type; the text to be on long primer, the types
having a full round face, and being entirely new, and the paper to be of
the best quality, sized, so that notes, in manuscript, may be written on
the margin of the pages. Second. That the work shall contain the
articles of Confederation, the Constitution, all the public and all the
private laws and resolves, whether obsolete, repealed, or in force, and
whether temporary or permanent, as well those respecting the District
of Columbia as all others, and all treaties with foreign nations and In-
dian tribes; but the treaties may be printed separately, and the private
laws separately, in the same style and in the same order of arrangement
with the others; the general laws and resolves to be contained in four
octavo volumes, and the private laws and treaties in two additional
octavo volumes. Third. There shall be a reference by a foot note, in
small type, at the bottom of each page, to all laws passed subsequently
or previously to that in the text, on the same subject whether printed in
pamphlet or otherwise, with such explanations as may aid in obtaining
a knowledge of the changes of Congressional legislation on the subjects
of the laws; and in the volumes of the treaties there shall be such re-
ference, and by a similar note, to all the legislation of Congress, on the
subjects of the treaties. Fourth. If parts of a law only have been re-
pealed, or parts only are in force, it shall be accurately and exactly
marked in the margin. Fifth. The laws, resolves, and treaties shall be
arranged in strict chronological order; the laws of each session furnish-
ing chapters, designated numerically to the end of each session, and the
whole series of laws of each session to be described as one statute; the
day of the approval of each act to be stated at the end thereof; a run-
ning title at the head of each page, to express the session of Congress,
the date and chapter of each act; and at the beginning of each Con-
gress shall be stated the place where the session was held, the name of
the President of the United States, of the President of the Senate, and
the Speaker of the House of Representatives. Sixth. At the foot of
each page, in a note, reference shall be made to all decisions of the
supreme, circuit and district courts, construing or applicable to the law
or treaty in the text. Seventh. There shall be a full alphabetical verbal
general index of all the matters of the laws, resolves, and treaties, at
large, under the leading heads, with full reference, under the minor
heads, to all the matters, according to the plan and illustration in the
memorial aforesaid; and a separate index of the matters in each volume,
prepared in the same manner as the general index, shall be subjoined
to each volume. There shall be an appendix at the end of each volume,
containing a complete list of all the acts, resolves, and treaties, in the
volume, chronologically arranged, with a brief and general description
of the subject of the act, in this form, that is to say:

Stat. 1789, chap. 1. Oaths of office.

Stat. 1789, chap. 2. Duties.

Stat. 1789, chap. 3. Duties on tonnage.

Stat. 1789, chap. 4. Establishment of Executive Departments. Eighth. The said Little and Brown shall stipulate, with good and sufficient and satisfactory security, to furnish the United States with such

Appropriation.

Secretary of War to pay for

their services in Florida.

additional copies of the work, in all respects like the foregoing, as the Government from time to time may require, at prices not to exceed two dollars and seventy-five cents a volume; and they shall stipulate, with such security for the faithful performance of all parts of the contract which the Attorney General is herein authorized to make; and, in addition to such security, they shall execute to the United States a conveyance of the stereotype plates from which the first copies shall be printed, for the purpose of printing the additional copies thereof, in such form that in whosesoever hands the plates may be at any future and distant period of time, the delivery of such additional copies to the United States may be effectually secured; they shall make immediate insurance on such plates, for the benefit of the United States and the proprietors of the plates, against loss by fire; and on the plates of the title page of each volume the interest of the United States in the plates as defined by this resolution, shall be printed. Ninth. Before the United States shall be called on to pay for any volume of the work, it shall be submitted to the Attorney General, or to such other officer or officers of the Government as Congress may designate; and on his or their approbation thereof, and his or their decision that it is edited and printed in all respects according to the contract, it shall be paid for from the Treasury of the United States.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That, for the purpose aforesaid, there be appropriated and paid, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, a sum not exceeding twenty-one thousand dollars.

APPROVED, March 3, 1845.

March 3, 1845. No. 11. A Joint Resolution authorizing the Secretary of War to pay any balance that may be due the Shawnee Indians who served in the Florida war. Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Secretary of War be, and he is hereby, authorized and required to pay any balance that may be due the Shawnee Indians who served in the Florida war, under an order issued by the Secretary of War, dated July twenty-second, eighteen hundred and thirty-seven, in which the Indians were promised the sum of two hundred and seventy dollars for six months' service; and that the Secretary be required to pay, according to said order, to the chiefs of said tribe of Indians, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated.

APPROVED, March 3, 1845.

March 3, 1845. No. 13. Joint Resolution to fix the time when the act to reduce the rates of postage, to limit the use and correct the abuse of the franking privilege, and for the prevention of frauds on the revenues of the Post Office Department, passed at this session, shall go into effect.

Act of March

3, 1845, ch. 43.

Act to go into

effect on 1st July 1845.

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the act "to reduce the rates of postage, to limit the use and correct the abuse of the franking privilege, and for the prevention of frauds on the revenues of the Post Office Department," passed at the present session, shall go into effect on and after the first day of July next, and not sooner, anything in said act to the contrary notwithstanding.

APPROVED, March 3, 1845.

No. 14. A Joint Resolution directing the Secretary of the Treasury, whenever any March 3, 1845. State shall have been or may be in default for the payment of interest or principal on investments in its stocks or bonds held by the United States in trust, to retain certain moneys to which such State is entitled for the purposes therein named.

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That whenever any State shall have been or may be in default for the payment of interest or principal on investments in its stocks or bonds, held by the United States in trust, it shall be the duty of the Secretary of the Treasury to retain the whole, or so much thereof as may be necessary, of the per centage to which such State may be entitled, of the proceeds of the sales of the public lands within its limits, and apply the same to the payment of said interest or principal, or to the reimbursement of any sums of money expended by the United States for that purpose.

APPROVED, March 3, 1845.

Amount due

on State stocks held by U. S. in withheld from the States under certain cir

trust, to be

cumstances.

No. 15. A Resolution authorizing the employment of additional inspectors of the March 3, 1845. customs at the port of New Orleans.

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That it shall be lawful for the collector of the customs for the district of New Orleans, with the approbation of the Secretary of the Treasury, to employ, from time to time, if the public service requires it, at the port of New Orleans, persons as occasional inspectors of the customs, not exceeding ten in number, in addition to the inspectors now authorized by law, who shall be subject to the same rules and regulations as are now prescribed by law for occasional inspectors.

APPROVED, March 3, 1845.

Collector may

employ not exceeding ten.

VOL. V.-101

APPENDIX.

Preamble.

The President declares that the

Indian title has been extinguished.

No. I.

Proclamation issued by the President of the United States, under the act of June 7, 1836, chap. 86.

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

A PROCLAMATION.

WHEREAS, by an act of Congress of the 7th of June, 1836, it was enacted that when the Indian title to all the lands lying between the State of Missouri and the Missouri river should be extinguished, the jurisdiction over said land should be ceded by the said act to the State of Missouri, and the western boundary of said State should be then extended to the Missouri river, reserving to the United States the original right of soil in said lands, and of disposing of the same; and whereas, it was in and by the said act provided that the same should not take effect until the President should, by proclamation, declare that the Indian title to said lands had been extinguished, nor until the State of Missouri should have assented to the provisions of the said

act:

And whereas, an act was passed by the General Assembly of the State of Missouri, on the 16th of December, 1836, expressing the assent of the said State to the provisions of the said act of Congress, a copy of which act of the General Assembly, duly authenticated, has been officially communicated to this Government, and is now on file in the Department of State:

Now, THEREFORE, I, MARTIN Van Buren, President of the United States of America, do, by this my proclamation, declare and make known, that the Indian title to all the said lands lying between the State of Missouri and the Missouri river, has been extinguished, and that the said act of Congress of the 7th of June, 1836, takes effect from the date hereof.

Given under my hand at the city of Washington, this 28th day of March, A. D. 1837, and of the Independence of the United States of America the sixty-first.

By the President :

MARTIN VAN BUREN.

JOHN FORSYTH,

Secretary of State.

Act of Gen. Ass. of Va., passed 27th Feb. 1829.

The Chesa

peake and Ohio Canal company may in lieu of bridges substitute boats, &c.

No. II.

BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA.

"An act further to amend the act incorporating the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company-Passed February twenty-seventh, eighteen hundred and twenty-nine.”

"Be it enacted by the General Assembly, That the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company be, and they are hereby, empowered, whenever it shall be, in the judgment of the president and directors thereof, expedient, in lieu of bridges, to substitute boats, properly fitted, for the transportation of persons, wagons and carriages of every description, across the canal, whenever a public or private road shall render a bridge or ferry necessary, and such road cannot be conveniently conducted under the canal.

"Be it further enacted, That the said president and directors, acting in behalf President and of the said company, and with the consent and approbation thereof, expressed at Directors may, some general meeting thereof, in which a majority in interest of said stock is represented, may sell, let, or otherwise dispose of, any surplus water in any part of the said canal, or of any feeder or reservoir thereof, if they shall be of opinion that no injury will result therefrom to the navigation of the canal.

with consent of company, sell,

&c. any surplus

water.