(ACT of March 3d, 1817.)

debt; and it shall be the duty of the secretary of the treasury annually to cause to be paid to the commissioners of the sinking fund the said sum of ten millions of dollars, in such payments, and at such times in each year, as the situation of the treasury will best admit: Provided, That all such payments as may be necessary to enable the said commissioners to discharge or reimburse any demands against the United States, on account of the principal or interest of the debt which shall be actually due in conformity to the engagements of the said United States, shall be made at such times in each year as will enable the said commissioners faithfully and punctually to comply with such engagement: Provided also, That any money which may have been paid, before the passage of this act, to the commissioners of the sinking fund for the year one thousand eight hundred and seventeen, as a part of the annual appropriation heretofore made by law to that fund, shall be held to be a payment for the year one thousand eight hundred and seventeen, on account of the appropriation of ten millions hereinbefore directed.

SEC. 11. In addition to the sum of ten millions of dollars, hereinbefore annually appropriated to the sinking fund, there shall be appropriated for the year one thousand eight hundred and seventeen, to the sinking fund, the further sum of nine millions of dollars, to be paid, out of any moneys in the treasury not otherwise appropriated, at such time within the year as the secretary of the treasury shall deem most conducive to the public interest, to be applied by the commissioners of the sinking fund to the purchase or redemption of the public debt; and it shall be lawful for the secretary of the treasury, at any time during the year one thousand eight hundred and seventeen, if he shall deem it expepedient to do so, to cause to be paid to the commissioners of the sinking fund a further sum, not exceeding four millions of dollars, which shall be considered as an advance to that amount, on the appropriation of ten millions, payable in the next year, and the said amount shall also be applied by the said commissioners to the purchase or redemption of the public debt, and the commissioners aforesaid are authorised and directed to apply the sums by this act appropriated to the purchase and redemption of the public debt, holden by the bank of the United States, if not otherwise to be obtained on the terms stated in this act.

SEC. IV. After the year one thousand eight hundred and seventeen, whenever there shall be, at any time after an adjournment of congress, in any year, a surplus of money in the treasury, above the sums appropriated for the service of such year, the payment of which to the commissioners of the sinking fund, will yet leave in the treasury, at the end of the year, a balance equal to two millions of dollars, then such surplus shall be, and the same is hereby, appropriated to the sinking fund, to be paid at such times as the situation of the treasury will best permit; and shall be applied, by the commissioners thereof, to the purchase or redemption of the public debt.

(ACT of February 4th, 1819.)

SEC. V. Whenever, in any year, there shall be a surplus in the sinking fund, beyond the amount of interest and principal, which may be actually due and payable by the United States, in such year, in conformity with their engagements, the commissioners of the sinking fund shall be, and they are hereby authorised, with the approbation of the president of the United States, to purchase the debt of the United States, at its market price, if such price shall not exceed the following rates, viz: for stock of the United States, bearing an interest of three per centum per annum, there shall not be paid more than sixty-five dollars for every hundred dollars of the principal thereof; for stock bearing an annual interest of six per centum per annum, there shall not be paid more than the par or true value thereof; and for stock bearing an annual interest of seven per centum, there shall not be paid an advance above the par value thereof, which shall exceed, for every hundred dollars of stock, the computed value of an annuity of one dollar for a number of years, equal to that during which the stock so purchased will not be reimbursable at the pleasure of government, estimating, in such computation, the interest of money at six per centum per annum.

SEC. VI. All certificates of public debt which, by payment or purchase, have become, or hereafter shall become, the property of the United States, shall be cancelled or destroyed, at such times, and under such regulations and securities, as the commissioners of the sinking fund, with the approbation of the president, shall establish and determine. And no interest shall be considered as accruing, and no further payment shall be made, on account of such debt, the certificates of which have been so cancelled and destroyed.

37. SEC. VII. Nothing in this act contained shall be construed to prevent the congress of the United States, if war shall occur with any foreign power, from applying, to any object of public service, any surplus of the amount herein appropriated to the sinking fund, which may be left in any year after paying the interest and principal which may be actually due and payable by the United States, in conformity with their engagements. Nor shall any thing in this act be construed to repeal, alter, or affect, any of the provisions of any former act, pledging the faith of the United States to the payment of the interest or principal of the public debt, but all such payments shall continue to be made at the time heretofore prescribed by law, excepting only as before provided, that no payments shall be made on certificates which have become the property of the United States.

ACT of February 4, 1819. Pamphlet edit. 8.

38. SEC. 1. Whenever proof shall be exhibited, to the satisfaction of the secretary of the treasury, of the loss or destruction of any treasury note, issued under the authority of any act of congress, it shall be lawful for the said secretary, upon receiving hond, with

(ACT of May 15th, 1820.)

sufficient security to indemnify the United States against any other claim on account of the treasury note alledged to be so lost or destroyed, to pay the amount due on such note, to the person who had lost it, or in whose possession it has been destroyed.

ACT of May 15, 1820. Pamphlet edit. 96.

An act to authorise the president of the United States to borrow a sum not exceeding three millions of dollars.

39. SEC. 1. The president of the United States is hereby empowered to borrow, on the credit of the United States, a sum not exceeding three millions of dollars, at a rate of interest, payable quarter yearly, not exceeding five per centum per annum, and reimbursable, at the will of the government, at any time after the first day of January, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-two; or, at a rate of interest, payable in like manner, not exceeding six per centum per annum, and reimburseable at the pleasure of the United States; to be applied, in addition to the moneys now in the treasury, or which may be received therein from other sources, during the present year, to defray any of the public expenses which are, or may be, authorised by law. The stock thereby created shall be transferable in the same manner as is provided by law for the transfer of the public debt.

SEC. 11. It shall be lawful for the bank of the United States to lend the said sum, or any part thereof; and it is hereby further declared, that it shall be deemed a good execution of the said power to borrow, for the secretary of the treasury, with the approbation of the president of the United States, to cause to be constituted certificates of stock, signed by the register of the treasury, or by a commissioner of loans, for the sum to be borrowed, or for any part thereof, bearing an interest of five per centum per annum, transferable, and reimburseable, as aforesaid, and to cause the said certificates of stock to be sold: Provided, That no stock be sold under par.

SEC. III. The secretary of the treasury is hereby authorised, with the approbation of the president of the United States, to employ an agent, or agents, for the purpose of obtaining subscrip tions to the loan authorised by this act, or of selling any part of the stock to be created by virtue thereof. A commission, not exceeding one-eighth of one per cent. on the amount thus sold, or for which subscriptions shall have been thus obtained, may, by the secretary of the treasury, be allowed to such agent or agents; and a sum, not exceeding four thousand dollars, to be paid out of any moneys in the treasury, not otherwise appropriated, is hereby ap propriated for that object, and also for defraying the expenses of printing and issuing the subscription certificates, and certificates of stock, and other expenses incident to the due execution of this

act.

40.SEC.IV. So much of the funds constituting the annual appropriation of ten millions of dollars, for the payment of the principal and

(ACT of March 29th, 1806.)

interest of the public debt of the United States, as may be sufficient for that purpose, after satisfying the sums necessary for the payment of the interest, and of such part of the principal, of the said debt, as the United States are now pledged annually to pay or reimburse, is hereby pledged and appropriated for the payment of the interest, and for the reimbursement of the principal, of the stock which may be created by virtue of this act. It shall, accordingly, be the duty of the commissioners of the sinking fund to cause to be applied and paid, out of the said fund, yearly, such sum and sums as may annually be necessary to discharge the interest accruing on the said stock, and to reimburse the principal, as the same may become due, and may be discharged, in conformity with the terms of the loan. And they are further authorised to apply, from time to time, such sum or sums, out of the said fund, as they may think proper, towards discharging, by purchase, and at a price not above par, the principal of the said stock, or any part thereof. And the faith of the United States is hereby pledged to establish sufficient revenues for making up any deficiency that may hereafter take place in the funds hereby appropriated for paying the said interest and principal sums, or any of them, in manner aforesaid.

ACT of March 29, 1806. 4 Bioren, 11.

An act to regulate the laying out and making a road from Cumberland, in the state of Maryland, to the state of Ohio.

1. SEC. 1. The president of the United States is hereby authorised to appoint, by and with the advice and consent of the senate, three discreet and disinterested citizens of the United States, to lay out a road from Cumberland, or a point on the northern bank of the river Potowmac, in the state of Maryland, between Cumberland and the place where the main road leading from Gwinn's to Winchester, in Virginia, crosses the river, to the state of Ohio; whose duty it shall be, as soon as may be after their appointment, to repair to Cumberland aforesaid, and view the ground, from the points on the river Potowmac, hereinbefore designated, to the river Ohio; and to lay out, in such direction as they shall judge, under all circumstances, the most proper, a road from thence to the river Ohio, to strike the same at the most convenient place, between a point on its eastern bank, opposite to the northern boundary of Steubenville, in said state of Ohio, and the mouth of

(ACT of April 21st, 1806.)

Grave creek, which empties into the said river a little below Wheeling, in Virginia.

SEC. 11. The aforesaid road shall be laid out four rods in width, and designated on each side by a plain and distinguishable mark on a tree, or by the erection of a stake or monument, sufficiently conspicuous, in every quarter of a mile of the distance, at least, where the road pursues a straight course so far or farther, and on each side, at every point where an angle occurs in its course.

SEC. II. The commissioners shall, as soon as may be after they have laid out said road, as aforesaid, present to the president an accurate plan of the same, with its several courses and distances, accompanied by a written report of their proceedings, describing the marks and monuments by which the road is designated, and the face of the country over which it passes, and pointing out the particular parts which they shall judge require the most and immediate attention and amelioration: and the probable expense of making the same passable in the most difficult parts, and through the whole distance; designating the state or states through which said road has been laid out, and the length of the several parts which are laid out on new ground, as well as the length of those parts laid out on the road now travelled. Which report the president is hereby authorised to accept or reject, in the whole or in part. If he accepts, he is hereby further authorised and requested to pursue such measures as, in his opinion, shall be proper to obtain consent, for making the road, of the state or states through which the same has been laid out. Which consent being obtained, he is further authorised to take prompt and effectual measures to cause said road to be made through the whole distance, or in any part or parts of the same as he shall judge most conducive to the public good, having reference to the sum appropriated for the purpose.

SEC. IV. All parts of the road which the president shall direct to be made, in case the trees are standing, shall be cleared the whole width of four rods; and the road shall be raised in the middle of the carriage way with stone, earth, or gravel and sand, or a combination of some or all of them, leaving or making, as the case may be, a ditch or water course on each side, and contiguous to, said carriage way; and in no instance shall there be an elevation in said road, when finished, greater than an angle of five degrees with the horizon. But the manner of making said road, in every other particular, is left to the direction of the president.

SEC. VII. The president is hereby requested to cause to be laid before congress as soon as convenience will permit after the commencement of each session, a statement of the proceedings under this act, that congress may be enabled to adopt such further measures as may from time to time be proper under existing circum

stances.

ACT of April 21, 1806. 4 Bioren, 58.

2. SEC. VII. The president of the United States is authorised to