PUBLIC-No. 65.]

AN ACT to define the fees of recorder of deeds and to provide for the appointment of warden of the jail in the District of Columbia, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That from and after the passage of this act the style of the "register of deeds of the District of Columbia" shall be "recorder of deeds of the District of Columbia."

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That the legal fees for the services of said recorder of deeds shall be as follows, viz:

The filing, recording, and indexing, or for making certified copy of any instrument containing two hundred words or less, fifty cents, and fifteen cents for each additional hundred words, to be collected at the time of filing, and when the copy is made.

For each certificate and seal, twenty-five cents.

For searching records extending back two years or less next preceding current date, twenty-five cents, and five cents for each additional year, to be paid by the party for whom the search may be made.

For recording a town plat, three cents for each lot such plat may contain.

For recording a plat or survey, five cents for each course such survey may contain.

For filing and indexing any paper required by law to be filed in his office, fifteen cents.

For each examination of title by the party or his attorney, fifty cents. For taking any acknowledgement, fifty cents.

SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That all deeds of conveyance, leases, powers of attorney, and other written instruments required by law to be filed and recorded, and all copies of instruments and records and certificates authorized by law, filed, recorded, made, and certified by William G. Flood, as acting register of deeds for said District since the death of Edward C. Eddie, late register, up to the date of the appointment and qualification of his successor shall be, and are hereby, declared to be legally performed, the same as if the said William G. Flood had been legally appointed and qualified as register of deeds. And the said William G. Flood is hereby declared to be entitled to all the legal fees and emoluments of said office for his said services which have been hitherto allowed the register of deeds, and which accrued during said period.

SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That from and after the passage of this act the supreme court of the District of Columbia shall have authority to appoint a suitable person to act as warden of the jail of said District, and to remove said officer whenever in the opinion of said court the public interests may require it, and to fill all vacancies which may

occur.

SEC. 5. And be it further enacted, That the warden of said jail shall have authority to appoint such subordinate officers, guards, and employe[e]s as are necessary for the proper management and safe-keeping of prisoners, which now are or may hereafter be authorized by law, subject to the approval of the chief justice of said court.

SEC. 6. And be it further enacted, That all acts and parts of acts inconsistent with the provisions of this act are hereby repealed.

Approved, March 3, 1869.

PUBLIC RESOLUTIONS.

[PUBLIC RESOLUTION-No. 1.]

A RESOLUTION in relation to the library of the Department of Agriculture.

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Commissioner of Agriculture shall regard the library now under his control, and in his possession, as part of the property of the Department of Agriculture, and he shall retain the same in his charge as directed by section three of the act approved May fifteen, eighteen hundred and sixty-two, establishing a Department of Agriculture.

Approved, December 15, 1868.

[PUBLIC RESOLUTION-No. 2.]

JOINT RESOLUTION donating condemned cannon for the erection of a monument to Major General Kearney.

Be it 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 to furnish such condemned iron cannon as may be required, not exceeding four, for the completion of a monument at Tivoli, New York, over the remains of the late Major General Philip Kearney, and other Union soldiers buried at that place, who lost their lives in the late war.

Approved, December 21, 1868.

[PUBLIC RESOLUTION-No. 3.]

JOINT RESOLUTION explanatory of the act to create an additional land office in the State of Minnesota, approved July twenty-fifth, eighteen hundred and sixty-eight.

Be it resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the limits of the land district as designated in the act entitled "An act to create an additional land district in the State of Minnesota," approved July twenty-fifth, eighteen hundred and sixty-eight, to wit: "all that part of the northwestern land district which lies north of township number one hundred and twenty-four north and west of range number thirty-five west of the fifth principal meridian," shall be construed to embrace,all the lands north of township one hundred and twenty-four and west of said range thirty-five.

Approved, January 14, 1869.

[PUBLIC RESOLUTION-NO. 4.]

A RESOLUTION authorizing the transfer of certain appropriations heretofore made for the public printing, binding, and engraving.

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Secretary of the Treas ury be, and he is hereby, authorized and directed to cause the sum of one hundred and ninety-four thousand dollars to be transferred from the appropriation "for paper for the public printing," contained in the act entitled "An act making appropriations for the legislative, executive, and judicial expenses of the government for the year ending June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and sixty-nine," approved on the twentieth of July, eighteen hundred and sixty-eight, in aid of the appropriations contained in the same act, for the following purposes, and in the following proportions, to wit:

For the public binding, the sum of one hundred and ten thousand dollars.

For lithographing and engraving for the Senate and House of Representatives, the sum of eighty-four thousand dollars. Approved, February 9, 1869.

[PUBLIC RESOLUTION-No. 5.]

A RESOLUTION relative to the recent contract for stationery for the Department of the Interior.

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Secretary of the Interior be directed to annul and cancel the contract made by him with Messrs. Dempsey and O'Toole for supplying the Department of the Interior and the several bureaus and offices thereof with stationery for the fiscal year ending June thirty, eighteen hundred and sixty-nine, (under the advertisement issued May twenty-five, eighteen hundred and sixty-eight.)

SCHUYLER COLFAX,

Speaker of the House of Representatives.
B. F. WADE,

President of the Senate pro tempore.

Endorsed by the President: "Received February 6th, 1869."

[NOTE BY THE DEPARTMENT OF STATE. The foregoing resolution having been presented to the President of the United States for his approval, and not having been returned by him to the house of Congress in which it originated within the time prescribed by the Constitution of the United States, has become a law without his approval.]

[PUBLIC RESOLUTION-NO. 6.]

A RESOLUTION respecting the provisional governments of Virginia and Texas. Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the persons now holding civil offices in the provisional governments of Virginia and Texas, who cannot take and subscribe the oath prescribed by the act entitled "An act to prescribe an oath of office and for other purposes," approved July 2,

!

1862, shall, on the passage of this resolution, be removed therefrom; and it shall be the duty of the district commanders to fill the vacancies so created by the appointment of persons who can take said oath: Provided, That the provisions of this resolution shall not apply to persons who by reason of the removal of their disabilities as provided in the fourteenth amendment to the Constitution shall have qualified for any office in pursuance of the act entitled "An act prescribing an oath of office by persons from whom legal disabilities shall have been removed," approved July eleventh, eighteen hundred and sixty-eight: And provided further, That this resolution shall not take effect until thirty days from and after its passage: And it is further provided, That this resolution shall be, and is hereby extended to, and made applicable to the State of Mississippi. SCHUYLER COLFAX,

Speaker of the House of Representatives.

B. F. WADE,

President of the Senate pro tempore.

Endorsed by the President: "Received February 6th, 1869.”

[NOTE BY THE DEPARTMENT OF STATE.-The foregoing resolution having been presented to the President of the United States for his approval, and not having been returned by him to the house of Congress in which it originated within the time prescribed by the Constitution of the United States, has become a law without his approval.]

[PUBLIC RESOLUTION-No. 7.]

JOINT RESOLUTION directing the enforcement of the lien upon the steamer "Atlantic." Whereas, on the sixth of February, eighteen hundred and forty-nine, an agreement in the nature of a chattel mortgage was entered into between the Secretary of the Navy of the United States and the assignees of the Collins contract, by which, after reciting the acts of March third, eighteen hundred and forty-seven, and August third, eighteen hundred and forty-eight aforesaid, and that the assignees of the contract had launched two vessels, (the "Atlantic" and "Pacific," still unfinished,) and had applied for advances under the act, and were willing and desirous to secure the repayment or refunding of the same from the annual compensation of the said ships by a lien on said ships, it was witnessed that the said assignees bargained, sold and conveyed the said two vessels to Prosper M. Wetmore, upon trust; that the assignees should retain possession of the said vessels and employ them in execution of the contract, and if, after the expiration of one year from the commencement of the performance of the service under the contract, the assignees should have failed to repay in money, or to refund out of one year's compensation, such outstanding balance due and unpaid or unretunded of such advances as the Secretary of the Navy might have made prior to the end of one year from the commencement of the performance of the said service, then the said Wetmore was, after advertising for six months the time and place of sale, to sell the said steamships at public auction, and out of the proceeds pay (1) the expenses of the trust, (2,) the balances of advances due the United States, and (3) the surplus to the assignees; and whereas the said deed of mortgage is still binding on the "Atlantic," one of the said steamships; and whereas a large amount is still due on the said mortgage for expenses incurred in executing the trust, which