# United States Statutes at Large/Volume 4/19th Congress/1st Session/Chapter 45

Chap. XLV.—An Act further to amend the charter of the town of Alexandria.
Act of May 26, 1824, ch. 195. Tenements and lots of ground on which taxes, &c., remain unpaid, &c., to be sold. Proviso.Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That tenements and lots of ground within the town of Alexandria, on which taxes, assessments, or charges, remain due and unpaid, to the common council of the said town, for the space of two years, or shall hereafter remain due and unpaid, for that space of time, or so much of said lots as may be necessary, may be sold at public auction, for the payment of the taxes, assessments, or charges, which are, or shall be due thereon, with the expenses attending the sale: Provided, That, before any such sale be made, an affidavit of the collector of the district or ward, in which such lots lie, stating that no goods or chattels of the person or persons charged with the payment of such taxes, assessments, or charges, sufficient to satisfy the same, can be found within the corporation, shall be lodged with the clerk of the common council:Proviso. Proviso: The purchaser or purchasers shall not be obligated to pay, at the time of such sale, more than the taxes, assessments, or charges due, and expenses of the sale. And provided, That public notice of ​the time and place of such sale, shall be given, by advertising in some newspaper published in the town of Alexandria, for at least six months, where the property is assessed to persons residing out of the United States; three months, where the property is assessed to persons residing within the United States, but without the District of Columbia: and six weeks, when the property is assessed to persons residing within the District of Columbia; in which notice shall be stated, the street or streets, on which such lots lie, the streets by which the square in which they lie is bounded: the name of the person or persons to whom they have been last assessed, on the books of the assessors, and the amount of the taxes, assessments, or charges, due thereon: And provided, further, That the purchaser or purchasers shall not be obliged to pay, at the time of such sale, more than the taxes, assessments, or charges due, and the expenses of sale; and that, if, within two years from the day of sale, the proprietor or proprietors of such lots, his, her, or their heirs, representatives, or agents, shall repay to such purchaser, or to the mayor, the money paid for such taxes, assessments, or charges and expenses, as aforesaid, with ten per centum per annum, as interest thereon, or make a tender of the same, he or she shall be re-instated in his, her, or their original title; but if no tender be made, within two years next after such sale, then the purchaser shall pay the balance of the purchase money of such lot or lots, into the treasury of the common council, where it shall remain, subject to the order of the proprietor or proprietors, or his or their legal representatives; and the purchaser, on the payment of the whole amount of the purchase money, shall receive a title to the said lot or lots, in fee simple, from the mayor, under his hand, and the seal of his office, which shall be deemed good and valid in law and equity.
Power given to the common council of Alexandria.Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That the common council of Alexandria shall have power to provide for the establishment, maintenance, and superintendence of public schools, and for registering of births, marriages, and deaths, and shall have power to preserve the navigation of the Potomac river, within their jurisdiction; to erect, repair, and regulate public wharves, deepen docks and basins, and to limit the extension of private wharves, into the harbour; to authorize, with the approbation of the President of the United States, the drawing of lotteries, for effecting any important improvement in and to the town, which the ordinary funds and revenue thereof will not accomplish; to restrain and prohibit the drawing of other lotteries, the keeping of tippling houses, and all kinds of gaming; to provide for the licensing, taxing, and regulating auctions, theatrical and public shows and amusements, and venders of lottery tickets; to appoint gaugers of casks, inspectors of domestic spirits, measurers and inspectors of wood, lumber and bark, grain, coal, beef, pork, fish, butter, and lard; weighers of hay, fodder, and straw; and to regulate, by law, the inspection, measurement, and weighing of the articles aforesaid; to regulate party, and other walls and fences, and to determine by whom they shall be kept in repair; to direct in what part of the town buildings of wood shall not be erected, and to regulate the size of bricks to be made or used, and shall have power to restrain and prohibit the nightly, and other disorderly meeting of slaves, free negroes or mulattoes, and to punish such slaves, by whipping, not exceeding forty stripes, or, at the option of the owner of such slaves, by fine or confinement to labour, not exceeding three months for every one offence; and to punish such free negroes or mulattoes for such offences, by fixed penalties, not exceeding twenty dollars for one offence; and in case of the failure of such free negro or mulatto to pay or satisfy such penalty and costs, to cause such free negro or mulatto to be confined to labour for any time, not exceeding six months for any one offence; to cause and provide for the removal of all such paupers, vagrants, and other persons, as may not be legally entitled to residence within the said corporation; to punish, by ​fine or penalty, any minor or apprentice, guilty of any breach of any law of the corporation, unless such fine or penalty, with the costs of prosecution, be paid by the parent, guardian, or master of such minor or apprentice, by confinement to labour for a limited time, not exceeding three months for any one offence.
Common council to have power to subscribe to the stock of the turnpike road, authorized by an act of the general assembly of Virginia, Feb. 14, 1818.Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That the said common council shall have power to subscribe to the stock of the turnpike road, which is authorized to be made by an act of the general assembly of Virginia, passed the fourteenth day of February, one thousand eight hundred and eighteen, entitled “An act incorporating a company to establish a turnpike road from Wiley’s Tavern, in the county of Fairfax, to a point of intersection on the Little River turnpike road, or on the line of the District of Columbia,” and to any turnpike road, or other public improvement, which has been, or may be, authorized by any act of Congress, leading to the town of Alexandria; and the said common council may lay any tax on the property in the said town, to promote any public improvement for the benefit of the said town, when, in the opinion of the said common council, it may be expedient, which said taxes may be collected as all other taxes are, or may be directed to be collected.
Part of the act of May 26, 1824, ch. 195, repealed.Sec. 4. And be it further enacted, That so much of an act, passed the twenty-sixth of May, eighteen hundred and twenty-four, entitled “An act supplementary to the act to incorporate the inhabitants of the city of Washington, passed the fifteenth of May, one thousand eight hundred and twenty, and for other purposes,” as relates to the town of Alexandria, be, and the same is hereby, repealed.
Approved, May 13, 1826.