independent state:

CHAP. LXXXI.

An act concerning the erection of the district of Kentucky into an independent state.

[Passed the 29th of December 1788.]

1. WHEREAS it is represented to this general asFurther proVision for e- sembly, that it is the desire of the good people in the rection of dis- district of Kentucky, that the same should be separatriet of Ken ted from this commonwealth whereof it is a part, and tucky into an be formed into an independent member of the American confederacy; and it is judged that such a partition of the commonwealth is rendered expedient, by the remote situation of the more fertile and populous part of the said district, and by the interjacent natural impediments to a convenient and regular communication therewith: Be it enacted by the General Assembly, that in the month of May next, on the respective court days of the counties within the said district, and at the respective places of holding courts therein, representatives, to continue in appointment for one year, and to compose a convention with the powers and for the purposes hereinafter mentioned, shall be elected by the free male inhabitants of each county above the age of twenty-one years, in like manner as delegates to the general assembly have been elected within the said district, in the proportions following: In the county of Jefferson, shall be elected five representatives; in the county of Nelson, five representatives; in the county of Fayette, five representatives; in the county of Bourbon, five representatives; in the county of Mercer, five representatives; in the county of Lincoln, five representatives; in the county of Madison, five representatives; in the county of Woodford, five representatives; and in the county of Mason, five representatives: Provided, that no free male inhabitant above the age of twentyone years shall vote in any other except the county in which he resides. That full opportunity may be given to the good people of exercising their right of suffrage on an occasion so interesting to them, each of the officers holding such elections shall continue the same from day to day, passing over Sunday, for five

days, including the first day; and shall cause this act to be read on each day immediately preceding the opening of the election, at the door of the courthouse, or other convenient place. Each of the said officers shall deliver to each person duly elected a representative, a certificate of his election, and shall moreover transmit a general return to the clerk of the supreme court, to be by him laid before the convention. For every neglect of any of the duties hereby enjoined on such officer, he shall forfeit one hundred pounds, to be recovered by action of debt, by any person suing for the same. The said convention shall be held at Danville, on the twentieth day of July next, and shall and may proceed, after chosing a president, and other proper officers, and settling the proper rules of proceeding, to consider and determine whether it be expedient for, and be the will of, the good people of the said district, that the same be erected into an independent state, on the terms and conditions following: (First) That Conditions. the boundary between the proposed state and Virginia shall remain the same as at present separates the district from the residue of the commonweaith: (Second) That the proposed state shall take upon itself a just proportion of the public and domestic debt of this commonwealth: (Third) That all private rights and interests in lands within the said district, derived from the laws of Virginia prior to such separation, shall remain valid and secure under the laws of the proposed state, and shall be determined by the laws now existing in this state: (Fourth) That the lands within the proposed state of non-resident proprietors shall not in any case be taxed higher than the lands of residents at any time prior to the admission of the proposed state to a vote by its delegates in congress, where such non-residents reside out of the United States, nor at any time either before or after such admission, where such nonresidents reside in this commonwealth, within which this stipulation shall be reciprocal; or where such nonresidents reside within any other of the United States, which shall declare the same to be reciprocal within its limits, nor shall a neglect of cultivation or improvement of any land within either the proposed state or this commonwealth, belonging to non-residents, citizens of the other, subject such non-residents to forfeiture or other penalty within the term of six years af

ter the admission of the said state into the federal union: (Fifth) That no grant of land, nor land-warrant to be issued by the proposed state, shall interfere with any warrant heretofore issued from the land-office of Virginia, which shall be located or laid within the said district, now liable thereto on or before the first day of September, one thousand seven hundred and ninety. (Sixth) That the unlocated lands within the said district, which stand appropriated by the laws of this commonwealth to individuals, or description. of individuals, for military or other services, shall be exempt from the disposition of the proposed state, and shall remain subject to be disposed of by the commonwealth of Virginia, according to such appropriation, until the congress of the Wuited States shall receive the proposed state into the federal union; and thereafter the residue of all lands remaining within the limits of the said district shall be subject to the disposition of the proposed state; saving and reserving to the officers and solders of the Virginia lines, on state and continental establishment, their representatives and assignees, their rights to lands under the several donations of this commonwealth, who shall not be restrained or limited as to time in making their respective locations, or compleating their surveys by any thing in this act contained, nor by any act of the proposed state, without the future consent of the legis lature of Virginia. (Seventh) That the use and navigation of the river Ohio, so far as the territory of the proposed state, or the territory which shall remain within the limits of this commonwealth lies thereon, shall be free and common to the citizens of the United States; Provided however, that five members assembled shall be a sufficient number to adjourn from day to day, and to issue writs for supplying vacancies which may happen from deaths, resignations, or refusals to act; a majority of the whole shall be a sufficient numher to choose a president, settle the proper rules of proceeding, authorise any number to summon a convention during a recess, and to act in all other instances where a greater number is not expressly requir ed; two thirds of the whole shall be a sufficient number to determine on the expediency of forming the said district into an independent state on the aforesaid terms and conditions; provided that a majority of the whole number to be elected concur therein,

II. And be it further enacted, that if the said convention shall approve of the erection of the said district into an independent state, on the foregoing terms and conditions, they shall and may proceed to fix a day posterior to the first day of November, one thousand seven hundred and ninety, on which the authority of this commonwealth and of its laws, under the exceptions aforesaid, shall cease and determine forever over the proposed state, and the said articles become a solemn compact mutually binding on the parties, and unalterable by either, without the consent of the other. Provided however, that prior to the first day of September, one thousand seven hundred and ninety, the congress of the United States shall assent to the erection of the said district into an independent state, and shall agree that the proposed state shall immediately after the day to be fixed as aforesaid, posterior to the first day of September, one thousand seven hundred and ninety, or at some convenient time future thereto, be admitted into the federal union. And to the end that no period of anarchy may happen to the good people of the proposed state, it is to be understood that the said convention shall have authority to take the necessary provisional measures for the election and meeting of a convention at some time prior to the day fixed for the determination of the authority of this commonwealth and of its laws over the said district, and posterior to the first day of September, one thousand seven hundred and ninety, aforesaid, with full power and authority to frame a fundamental constitution of government for the proposed state, and to declare what laws shall be in force therein, until the same shall be abrogated or altered by the legislative authority acting under the constitution so to be framed and established. Provided, that no act of the said convention, or of the legislature of the proposed state, shall invalidate or affect the rights, titles, or interests, of any person, or description of persons, herein before secured or guarded.

III. This act shall be transmitted by the executive to the representatives of this commonwealth in congress, who are hereby instructed to use their endeavours to obtain from congress a speedy act to the effect above specified.

er from

Pocahuntus

bridge

CHAP. LXXXII.

An act for improving the navigation of Appamattox river, from Broadway to Pocahuntas bridge.

[Passed the 30th of December, 1788]

1. WHEREAS it hath been represented to the preAct for im- sent general assembly, that the navigation of Appaproving av mattox river might be greatly improved by deepening gation of Ap the channel from Pocahuntas bridge to Broadway, so pamatox riv. as to admit large vessels to go up to the town of PeBroadway to tersburg: Be it therefore enacted by the General Assembly, That books shall be opened in the town of Petersburg, on the first day of February next, under the management of Robert Bolling, junior, Joseph Jones, Theodrick Bland, Christopher M.Conico, Thomas Griffin Peachey, James Campbell, Edward Pegram, and William Barksdale, for receiving subscriptions for the purpose of deepening the channel of the said river. The subscriptions shall be made personally or by power of attorney, and shall be in current money, and paid in gold or silver coin at the current value. The capital to be subscribed for the purpose aforesaid, shall be ten thousand pounds, and shall be divided into two hundred shares of the value of fifty pounds each. Any person may subscribe one or more whole shares, but no subscription shall be received for less than one share.

II. So soon as one half of the said capital shall be subscribed, the managers herein before named, shall by advertisement in the Petersburg gazette, call a general meeting of the subscribers at the said town of Petersburg. The subscribers who are present at the said meeting shall choose a president, and four directors, and thereafter the subscribers, their heirs and assigns, shall be incorporated into a company, by the name of the Appamattox company, and by that name may sue and be sued. The president and directors shall continue in office for one year, and from thence until the next meeting of the company; and they, or a majority of them, shall have full power to receive subscriptions un