Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

AT A

GENERAL ASSEMBLY

BEGUN AND HELD

Patrick Hon

vernor.

At the Public Buildings in the City of Richmond, on Monday the six-ry, esq. goteenth day of October in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-six, and in the eleventh year of the commonwealth.

CHAP. 1*.

An act for appointing commissioners to liquidate and settle the expences incurred in two expeditions carried on from the Kentucky district against the neighbouring Indians.

Commission

ers to settle

ky against

WHEREAS the citizens of this commonwealth in the district of Kentucky, have lately carried on two expeditions against the neighbouring tribes of Indians, accounts of and it is reasonable that such services should be re- expeditions warded, Be it therefore enacted by the General As- from Kentuc sembly, That Edmund Lyne, Isaac Shelby, and Rich- the Indians. ard Taylor, gentlemen, (any two of whom shall be a board) shall be, and they are hereby appointed commissioners to settle and adjust ati claims for pay and rations due prior to the twentieth day of October last, of the officers, soldiers, and those employed in the staff department, lately under the command of general

The 1st, 2d, 3d, 4th, 5th, and 6th chapters of the acts of this session are not numbered in the originals.

George Rogers Clarke, and colonel Benjamin Logali, against the Shawanese and Wabash indians, and also the claims of all those who have furnished arms, ammunition, provisions, salt, horses, halters, pack-saddles, bells, ropes, bags, axes, kettles, ferriage, pasturage for beef cattle, and provender and forage for the dragoon and drovers horses, by impressment or otherwise for the purpose of carrying on the said expeditions: and also to liquidate the accounts of those who have or may furnish provisions, clothing or other necessaries for the Indians prisoners in that district, until they may be exchanged or released. And all those who have made impressments necessarily for the use of the said expeditions shall be and are hereby indemnified. The said commissioners shall grant certificates under their hands to those entitled thereto, in the same manner as the auditors of public accounts have heretofore granted certificates for militia service and supplies, taking for their rule the prices allowed by law, for militia services, and the cash prices of all other articles which may have been furnished: Provided, That no officer in the staff department shall receive any greater allowance than is made to officers holding the same appointment in a brigade: Provided also, That no subaltern officer or soldier shall receive any certificate for pay unless he shall produce to the said commissioners, from the officer commanding the company to which he belongs, and also from one of the field officers of the regiment, a certificate of his having faithfully served during the said expeditions; and that no captain or field officer shall obtain such certificate. unless he shall produce to the said commissioners a similar certificate signed by the commanding officer of his regiment and countersigned by the said George Rogers Clarke or Benjamin Logan. Provided also, That where arms or any other article above mentioned have, since the said expeditions, been returned to the owners instead of certificates for the value, they shall receive certificates equal to the time their property was in the public service, and also for the injury such property may have received during that time. The commissioners hereby appointed shall meet at the town of Danville, in the county of Mercer, as soon as may be after the receipt of this act; and may adjourn from day to day, or to any other place or places within the dis

trict, and sit until the business is completed. They shall appoint a clerk who shall make entries, in a book to be kept for that purpose, of the names of all persons, and the amount of certificates issued to them: and shall transinit the same to the treasurer with an alphabetical list of such names, as a security against counterfeits, frauds or errors. The clerk shall transmit to the executive a certificate of the number of days the commissioners shall respectively have been employed in liquidating said claims, and the number of miles they have travelled: who shall make them and their clerk such allowances as their services deserve, to be paid in the same manner as warrants given to the officers of government. And be it further enacted, That the certificates thus issued shall be receivable in discharge of any of the taxes which may hereafter become due in the said district. Counterfeiters of certificates issued under this act shall be punished as counterfeiters of militia certificates heretofore issued by the auditors of public accounts. In case of the death resignation, refusal to act, or any other legal disability of any of the commissioners hereby appointed, the judges of the su preme court of the district of Kentucky shall have power to appoint others instead of those dead, resigned, or otherwise legally disabled.

And whereas it is just that every part of the state should contribute to the support of government, Be it therefore enacted, That in each of the counties of the said district, the court shall appoint commissioners of the tax, cause lists of the taxable property in the said county to be taken, call upon the sheriff or collector to give bond and security, and in all other instances fully carry into execution the laws for raising a permanent revenue within this state: Provided, That no sheriff or collector shall have a right to call upon the people, or shall himself be accountable for any taxes which shall have become due prior to the last day of January one thousand seven hundred and eighty-seven.

Provided always, and be it further enacted, That tobacco shall be receivable for taxes within the said district after the rate of twenty shillings per hundred, in like manner as provided in other cases by an act of the present session, intitled, "An act to enable the citizens of this commonwealth to discharge certain taxes by the payment of tobacco,"

VOL. XI.

E 2

And provided also, That the lands in the said district allotted by law to the officers and soldiers, who served in the army of the United States or this state, and which have not been aliened, shall not be subject to taxation, until the future direction of the legislature.

Militia to be

CHAP. II.

An act to amend the act for regulating and disciplining the militia, and for other purposes.

FOR the more effectual execution of the laws now allotted for a in force, for regulating and disciplining the militia, Be regular rou- it enacted by the General Assembly, That on or before tine of duty. the first day of May next, the county lieutenants or

commanding officers in the respective counties within this commonwealth, also in the city of Williamsburg and borough of Norfolk, with the field officers and captains shall meet on a day to be appointed by the county lieutenant or commanding officer, who are hereby required to enroll the militia within their several counties and corporations, into distinct companies; and thereafter the captain or commanding officer of each respective company, shall forthwith proceed to divide his company into divisions, by ballot, from one to ten, for the purpose of a regular rotine of duty when called into actual service, and shall return a roster of each division and its number in rotation within ten days, to the county lieutenant, or commanding officer of his county or corporation; any officer of the militia, called into actual service, neglecting or refusing to do his duty, shall forfeit his commission, and moreover be amerced at the discretion of a court martial, that is to Fines, in ac say, a county lieutenant in any sum not exceeding one tual service. hundred and fifty pounds; a colonel or lieutenant colonel not exceeding one hundred pounds; a major not

exceeding seventy five pounds; a captain not exceeding

fifty pounds; a lieutenant or ensign in any sum not exceeding forty pounds; and non-commissioned officers or privates in like manner refusing or neglecting shall also be fined at the discretion of a court martial in any sum not exceeding twenty pounds each: Provided always, That the penalties and forfeitures herein imposed on field officers, captains and subalterns, in case of failure or refusal as aforesaid, shall be subject to the approbation of the executive with power to remit or enforce the same. And be it farther enacted, That every captain or commanding officer of a company List of delinshall return on oath, a list of all delinquencies, which quencies how may have happened in his company since the last court of enquiry or assessment of fines in his county or corporation, to the county lieutenant or commanding officer, on the day of each succeeding general or regi mental muster, or court of enquiry and assessment of fines, which shall be held on the day next succeeding the day of holding any general or regimental muster, if fair, if not the first fair day, which said general or regimental muster shall be held by order and appointment of the county lieutenant, or in case of his absence, of the next commanding officer of the militia.

Officers fail

And be it further enacted, That officers of the militia, who have been reinstated in their commissions un- ing to qualify der the act of the last session of assembly and shall fail considered as or neglect to qualify to the same on or before the first resigned. day of May next, shall be considered as having resigned the same, and the respective county courts shall forthwith proceed to recommend other proper persons

to be commissioned in their room. Any field officer Fines on offi or commanding officer of a company failing to perform any duty herein prescribed to him, for which no penalty is imposed, shall be fined at the discretion of a court martial or court of enquiry, not exceeding to a field officer the sum of thirty pounds, and to a commanding officer of a company not exceeding fifteen pounds.

And whereas, it is expedient, that upon a deficiency of the contingent fund, the power of impressment should be exercised in case of invasion or insurrection.

Impressment Be it therefore enacted, That upon any invasion or of supplies insurrection, it shall be lawful for the governor, with authorised, in the advice of the council, to procure by impressment sion or insur whatsoever supplies may be necessary, and may be rection.

case of inva.

« AnteriorContinuar »