ENABLING
ACT FOR ALABAMA—1819
[fifteenth
congress, second session. ]
An
Act to enable the people of the Alabama Territory to form a constitution and
State government, and for the admission of such State into Union on an equal
footing with the original States.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of
Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That
the inhabitants of the Territory of Alabama be, and they are hereby,
authorized to form for themselves a constitution and State government, and
to assume such name as they may deem proper; and that the said Territory, when
formed into a State, shall be admitted into the Union, upon the same footing
with the original States, in all respects whatever.
Sec. 2.
And be it further enacted, That the said State shall consist of all
the territory included within the following boundaries, to wit: Beginning at
the point where the thirty-first degree of north latitude intersects the
Perdido River; thence, east, to the western boundary-line of the State of
Georgia; thence, along said line, to the southern boundary-line of the State
of Tennessee; thence, west, along said boundary-line, to the Tennessee River;
thence, up the same, to the mouth of Bear Creek; thence, by a direct line, to
the northwest corner of Washington County; thence, due south, to the Gulf of
Mexico; thence, eastwardly, including all islands within six leagues of the
shore, to the Perdido River; and thence, up the same, to the beginning.
Sec. 3.
And be it further enacted, That it shall be the duty of the surveyor of
the lands of the United States south of the State of Tennessee, and the
surveyor of the public lands in the Alabama Territory, to run and cut out the
line of demarcation, between the State of Mississippi and the State to be
formed of the Alabama Territory; and if it should appear to said surveyors
that so much of said line designated in the preceding section, running due
south, from the northwest corner of Washington County to the Gulf of Mexico
will encroach on the counties of Wayne, Greene, or Jackson, in said State of
Mississippi, then the same shall be so altered as to run in a direct line from
the northwest corner of Washington County to a point on the Gulf of Mexico,
ten miles east of the mouth of the river Pascagola.
And be it further enacted, That
all white male citizens of Sec. 4.
the United States, who shall have arrived at the age of twenty-one years, and
have resided in said Territory three months previous to the day of election
and all persons having, in other respects, the legal years, and all persons
having, in other respects, the legal the day of election, and all persons
having, in other respects, the legal qualifications to vote for
representatives in the generals assembly of the said Territory, be, and they
are hereby, authorized to choose representatives in the general assembly of
qualifications are hereby, authorized to choose representatives to form a
constitution, who shall be appointed among the several counties as follows:
From the county of Madison, eight representatives.
From the county of Monroe, four Representatives.
From the county of Blount, three representatives.
From the county of
Limestone, three representatives.
From the county of Shelby, two representatives.
From the county of Montgomery, two representatives.
From the county of Washington, two representatives.
From the county of Tuscaloosa, two representatives.
From the county of Lawrence, two representatives.
From the county of Franklin, two representatives.
From the county of Cotaco, two representatives.
From the county of Clark, two representatives.
From the county of Baldwin, one representative.
From the county of Cawhauba, one representative.
From the county of Conecah, one representative.
From the county of Dallas, one representative.
From the county of Marengo, one representative.
From the county of Marion, one representative.
From the county of Mobile, one representative.
From the county of Lauderdale, one representative.
From the county of Saint Clair, one representative.
From the county of Autauga, one representative.
And the election for the representatives aforesaid
shall be holden on the first Monday and Tuesday in May next, throughout the
several counties in the said Territory, and shall be conducted in the same
manner, and under the same regulations, as prescribed by the laws of the said
Territory regulating elections therein for the members of the House of
Representatives.
Sec. 5.
And be it further enacted, That the members of the convention, thus
duly elected, be, and they are hereby, authorized to meet, at the town of
Huntsville, on the first Monday in July next; which convention, when met,
shall first determine, "by a majority of the whole number elected,
whether it be, or be not, expedient, at that time to form a constitution and
State government for the people within the said Territory; And if it be
determined to be expedient, the convention shall be, and hereby are,
authorized to form a constitution and State government: Provided, That
the same, when formed shall be republican and not repugnant to the principles
of the ordinance of the thirteenth of July, one thousand seven hundred and
eighty-seven, between the people and States of the territory north-west of the
river Ohio, so far as the same has been extended to the said territory, by the
articles of agreement between the United States and the state of Georgia or of
the Constitution of the United States.
Sec. 6. And be it further enacted, That the
following propositions be and the same are hereby, offered to the convention
of the said Territory of Alabama, when formed, for their free acceptance or
rejection, which, if accepted by the convention, shall be obligatory
upon the United States.
First. That the section numbered sixteen in every township
when such section has been sold, granted, or disposed of, other land
equivalent thereto, and most contiguous to the same, shall be granted to the
inhabitants of such townships for the use of schools. Second. That all
salt-springs within the said Territory, and lands, reserved for the use of the
same, together with such other lands as may, by the President of the United
States, be deemed necessary and proper for working the said salt-springs, not
exceeding in the whole the quantity contained in thirty-six entire sections,
shall granted to the said State, for the use of the people of the said State
the same to be used, under such terms, conditions, and regulations the
legislature of the said State shall direct: Provided, The legislature
shall never sell nor lease the same for a longer term than ten years at any
one time.
Third. That five per cent, of the net proceeds of the lands
lying within the said Territory, and which shall be sold by Congress, from and
after the first day of September, in the year one thousand eight hundred and
nineteen, after deducting all expenses incident to the same, shall be reserved
for making public roads, canals, and improving the navigation of rivers, of
which three-fifths shall be applied those objects within the said State, under
the direction of the legislature thereof, and two-fifths to the making of a
road or roads leading to the said State, under the direction of Congress.
Fourth. That thirty-six sections, or one entire township, to
be designated by the Secretary of the Treasury, under the direction of the
President of the United States, together with the one heretofore reserved for
that purpose, shall be reserved for the use of a seminar of learning, and
vested in the legislature of the said State, to be appropriated solely to the
use of such seminary by the said legislature And the Secretary of the
Treasury, under the direction as aforesaid may reserve the seventy-two
sections, or two townships, hereby apart for the support of a seminary of
learning, in small tracts: Provided , That no tract shall consist of
less than two sections: And provided always, That the said convention
shall provide, by an ordinal irrevocable without the consent of the United
States, that the people inhabitating the said Territory, do agree and declare
that they forever disclaim all right and title to the waste or unappropriated
lands lying within the said Territory; and that the same shall be and remain
the sole and entire disposition of the United States; and, moreover that each
and every tract of land sold by the United States, after the first day of
September, in the year one thousand eight hundred and nineteen, shall be and
remain exempt from any tax laid by the order or under the authority, of the
State, whether for State, county, township, parish, or any other purpose
whatever, for the term of five years from and after the respective days of the
sales thereof; and that the lands belonging to citizens of the United States,
residing without said State, shall never be taxed higher than the lands
belonging persons residing therein; and that no tax shall be imposed on lands
the property of the United States; and that all navigable waterways within the
said State shall forever remain public highways, free to citizens of said State and of the United States, without any tax, duty,
impost, or toll, therefor, imposed by the said State.
Sec. 7.
And be it further enacted, That, in lieu of a section of land, provided
to be reserved for the seat of government of the said Territory, by an act,
entitled "An act respecting the surveying and sale of the public lands in
the Alabama Territory, " there be granted to the said State, for the seat
of the government thereof, a tract of land containing sixteen hundred and
twenty acres, and consisting of sundry fractions and a quarter-section, in
sections thirty-one and thirty-two, in township sixteen, and range ten, and in
sections five and six, in township fifteen, and range ten, and in sections
twenty-nine and thirty, in the same township and range, lying on both sides of
the Alabama and Cahawba Rivers, and including the mouth of the river Cahawba,
and which heretofore has been reserved from the public sale, by order
of the President of the United States.
Sec. 8.
And be it further enacted, That, until the next general census shall
be taken, the said State shall be entitled to one Representative in the House
of Representatives of the United States.
Sec. 9.
And be it further enacted, That, in case the said convention shall form
a constitution and State government for the people of the Territory of
Alabama, the said convention, as soon thereafter as may be, shall cause a true
and attested copy of such constitution or frame of government as shall be
formed or provided, to be transmitted to Congress, for its approbation.
Approved, March 2, 1819.