ships of the United States coming directly from France or Spain or any of their colonies, without being subject to any other or greater duty on merchandise, or other or greater tonnage than those paid by the citizens of the United States.

During the space of time ak ove mentioned, no other nation shall have a right to the same privileges in the ports of the ceded Territory; the twelve years shall commence three months after the exchange of ratifications, if it shall take place in France, or three months months after it shall have been notified at Paris to the French Government, if it shall take place in the United States; it is, however, well understood that the object of the above article is to favor the manufactures, commerce, freight and navigation of France and of Spain, so far as relates to the importations that the French and Spanish shall make into the said ports of the United States, without in any sort affecting the regulations that the United States may make concerning the exportation of the produce and merchandise of the United States, or any right they may have to make such regulations.

ARTICLE VIII. In future, and forever after the expiration of the twelve years, the ships of France shall be treated upon the footing of the most favored nations in the ports above mentioned.

ARTICLE IX. The particular convention signed this day by the respective ministers, having for its object to provide for the payment of debts due to the citizens of the United States by the French Republic, prior to the thirtieth of September, one thousand eight hundred, (eighth Vendemaire, An. 9,) is approved, and to have its execution in the same manner as if it had been inserted in the present treaty, and it shall be ratified in the same form and in the same time, so that the one shall not be ratified distinct from the other.

Another particular convention, signed at the same date as the present treaty, relative to a definitive rule between the contracting parties, is in the like manner approved and will be ratified in the same form and in the same time, and jointly.

ARTICLE X. The present treaty shall be ratified in good and due form, and the ratification shall be exchanged in the space of six months after the date of the signatures by the ministers plenipotentiaries, or sooner, if possible.

IN FAITH WHEREOF, The respective plenipotentiaries have signed these artices in the French and English languages; declaring, nevertheless, that the present treaty was originally agreed to in the French language; and have thereunto put their seals. Done at Paris the tenth day of Floreal, in the eleventh year of the French Republic, and the thirtieth April, one thousand eight hundred and three.

ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON,

[L. S.]

JAMES MONROE,

[L. S.]

ACTS OF CONGRESS.

1. AN ACT to enable the people of the Territory of Orleans to form a Constitution and State Government, and for the admission of such State into the Union, on an equal footing with the original States, and for other purposes, approved, February 16, 1811. Section 1.Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the inhabitants of all that part of the Territory or country ceded under the name of Louisiana, by the treaty made at Paris, on the thirtieth day of April, one thousand eight hundred and three, between the United States and France, contained within the following limits, that is to say: beginning at the mouth of the river Sabine, thence by a line to be drawn along the middle of said river, including all its lands to the thirty-second degree of latitude; thence due North, to the Northermost part of the thirty-third degree of North latitude; thence along the said parallel of latitude to the river Mississippi; thence down the said river to the river Iberville; and from thence along the middle of the said river and lakes Maurepas and Ponchartrain, to the gulf of Mexico; thence bounded by the said gulf to the place of beginning, including all islands within three leagues of the coast, 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, under the provisions and upon the conditions hereinafter mentioned.

Section 2-All free white male citizens of the United States, who shall have arrived at the age of twenty-one years, and resided within the said Territory at least one year previous to the day of election, and shall have paid a Teritorial, county, district, or parish tax; and all persons having, in other respects, the legal qualifications to vote for Representatives in the General Assembly of the Territory thereof, shall be and they are hereby authorized to choose Representatives to form a Convention, who shall be apportioned amongst the several counties, districts and parishes within the said Territory of New Orleans, in such manner as the Legislature of the said Territory shail by law direct. The number of the Representatives shall not exceed sixty; and the election for Representatives, aforesaid, shall take place on the third Monday in September next, and shall be conducted in the same manner as is now provided by the laws of said Territory for electing members for the House of Representatives.

Section 3.-The members of the Convention, when duly elected, shall be, and they are hereby, authorized to meet at the city of New Orleans, on the first Monday of November next, which Convention, when met, shall first determine, by the majority of the whole number elected, whether it be expedient or not, at that time, to form a Constitution or State Government, for the people within the said Territory, and if it be determined to be expedient, then the Convention shall, in like manner, declare in behalf of the people of the said Territory, that it adopts the Constitution of the United States; whereupon the said Convention shall be, and hereby is, authorized to form

a Constitution and State Government, for the people of the said Territory: Provided, The Constitution to be formed, in virtue of the authority herein given, shall be republican, and consistent with the Constitution of the United States; that it shall contain the fundamental principles of civil and religious liberty; that it shall secure to the citizens the trial by jury in all criminal cases, and the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus, conformably to the provisions of the Constitution of the United States, and that after the admission of the said Territory of Orleans as a State in the Union, the laws which such State may pass shall be promulgated, and its records, of every description shall be preserved, and its judicial and legislative written proceedings conducted in the language in which the laws and the judicial and legislative written proceedings of the United States are now published and conducted: And provided also, That the said Convention shall provide by an ordinance, irrevocable, without the consent of the United States, that the people inhabiting the said Territory do agree and declare, that they do forever disclaim all right or title to the waste or unappropriated lands lying within the said Territory; and that the same shall be and remain at the sole and entire disposition of the United States; and, moreover, that each and every tract of land sold by Congress shall be and remain exempt from any tax laid by the order or under the authority of the 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 the citizens of the United States, residing without the said State, shall never be taxed higher than the lands belonging to persons residing therein; and that no taxes shall be imposed on lands, the property of the United States.

Section 4. In case the Convention shall declare its assent in behalf of the people of the said Territory, to the adoption of the Constitution of the United States, and shall form a Constitution and State Government for the people of the said Territory of Orleans, the said Convention, as soon thereafter as may be, is hereby required to cause to be transmitted to Congress, the instrument by which its assent to the Constitution of the United States is thus given and declared, and also a true and attested copy of such Constitution or frame of State Government, as shall be formed and provided by said Convention, and if the same shall not be disapproved by Congress, at their next session after the receipt thereof, the said State shall be admitted into the Union, upon the same footing with the original States.

Section 5. Five per centum of the nett proceeds of the sales of the public lands of the United States, and after the first day of January, shall be applied in laying out and constructing public roads and levees in the said State, as the Legislature thereof may direct.

SIG. 3.

2. AN ACT for the admission of the State of Louisiana into the Union and to extend the laws of the United States to the said State, approved, April, 8, 1812. WHEREAS, The Representatives of the people of all that part of the Territory or country ceded, under the name of "Louisiana," by the treaty made at Paris, on the 30th day of April, one thousand eight hundred and three, between the United States and France, contained within the following limits, that is to say: beginning at the mouth of the river Sabine; thence, by a line to be drawn along the middle of said river, including all islands to the thirtysecond degree of latitude; thence, due North, to the Northermost part of the thirty-third degree of North latitude; thence, along the said parallel of latitude, to the river Mississippi; thence, down the⚫ said river to the river Iberville; and from thence, along the middle of the said river, and lakes Maurepas and Ponchartrain, to the Gulf of Mexico; thence, bounded by the said Gulf, to the place of beginning, including all islands within three leagues of the coast, did, on the twenty-second day of January, one thousand eight hundred and twelve, form for themselves a Constitution and State Government, and give to the said State the name of Louisiana, in pursuance of an act of Congress, entitled, "an Act to enable the people of the Territory of Orleans to form a Constitution and State Government, and for the admission of the said State into the Union, on an equal footing with the original States, and for other purposes; "and the said Constitution having been transmitted to Congress, and by them being hereby approved: therefore,

Section 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That the said State shall be one, and is hereby declared to be one of the United States of America, and admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original States, in all respects whatever, by the name and title of the State of Louisiana: Provided, That it shall be taken as a condition upon which the said State is incorporated into the Union, that the river Mississippi, and the navigable rivers and waters leading into the same, and into the gulf of Mexico, shall be common highways, and forever free, as well to the inhabitants of the said State as to the inhabitants of other States and the Territories of the United States, without any tax, duty, impost or toll therefor, imposed by the said State, and that the above condition, and also all other the conditions and terms contained in the third section of the act, the title whereof is herein before recited, shall be considered, deemed and taken, fundamental conditions and terms, upon which the said State is incorporated in the Union.

Section 2. Until the next general census and apportionment of Representatives, the said State shall be entitled to one Representative in the House of Representatives of the United States; and all the laws of the United States, not locally inapplicable, shall be extended to the said State, and shall have the same force and effect within the same as elsewhere within the United States.

Section 3. The said State, together with the residue of that

portion of country which was comprehended within the Territory of Orleans, as constituted by.the act, entitled, "an Act erecting Louisiana into two Territories, and providing for the temporary government thereof," shall be one district, and be called the Louisiana district; and there shall be established in the said district, a District Court, to consist of one Judge, who shall reside therein and be called the District Judge; and there shall be, annually, four stated sessions of the said court held at the city of Orleans; the first to commence on the third Monday of July next, and the three other sessions progressively, on the third Monday of every calender month thereafter. The said Judge shall, in all things, have and exercise the same jurisdiction and powers, which, by the act, the title whereof is in this section recited, were given to the District Judge of the Territory of Orleans; and he shall be allowed an annual compensation of three thousand dollars, to be paid quarter yearly at the Treasury of the United States. The said Judge shall appoint a clerk of the said Court, who shall reside and keep the records of the Court, in the city of Orleans, and shall receive for the services performed by him, the same fees heretofore allowed to the clerk of the Orleans Territory.

Section 4. There shall be appointed in the said district, a person, learned in the law, to act as Attorney for the United States, who shall, in addition to his stated fees, be paid six hundred dollars, annually, as a full compensation for all extra services. There shall also be appointed a Marshal for the said district, who shall perform the same duties, be subject to the same regulations and penalties, and be entitled to the same fees to which Marshals in other districts are entitled for similar services; and shall, moreover, be paid two hundred dollars, annually, as a compensation for all extra services.

Section 5. Nothing in this act shall be construed to repeal the fourth section of an act, entitled, "act Act for laying and collecting the duties on imports and tonnage within the Territories ceded to the United States, by the treaty of the thirtieth of April, one thousand eight hundred and three, between the United States and the French Republic; and for other purposes;" and the Collection District shall be and remain as thereby established.

Section 6. This act shall commence and be in force from and after the thirtieth day of April, 1812.

3. AN ACT to enlarge the limits of the State Louisiana, approved, April 14, 1812.

Section 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That in case the Legislature of the State of Louisiana shall consent thereto, all that tract of country comprehended within the following bounds, to wit beginning at the junction of the Iberville, with the river Mississippi; thence along the middle of the Iberville, the river Amite, and of the lakes Maurepas and Ponchartrain to the eastern mouth of the