# United States Statutes at Large/Volume 3/15th Congress/2nd Session/Chapter 93

Chap. XCIII.—An Act to authorize the President of the United States to take possession of East and West Florida, and establish a temporary government therein.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the President of the ​Act of March 3, 1821, ch. 39. The President authorized to take possession of East and West Florida, &c.United States be, and he is hereby, authorized to take possession of, and occupy, the territories of East and West Florida, and the appendages and appurtenances thereof; and to remove and transport the officers and soldiers of the king of Spain, being there, to the Havana, agreeably to the stipulations of a treaty between the United States and Spain, executed at Washington, on the twenty-second day of February, in the year one thousand eight hundred and nineteen, providing for the cession of said territories to the United States; and he may, for these purposes, and in order to maintain in said territories the authorityHe may employ the army, navy, and militia. of the United States, and the militia of any state or territory which he may deem necessary.
The President to appoint officers, and prescribe the manner of government of the territories. Revenue laws, and laws concerning the slave trade, extended to the territories. President to establish districts and appoint officers of the customs.Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That until the end of the first session of the next Congress, unless provision for the temporary government of said territories be sooner made by Congress, all the military, civil, and judicial, powers, exercised by the officers of the existing government of the same territories, shall be vested in such person and persons, and shall be exercised in such manner, as the President of the United States shall direct, for the maintaining the inhabitants of said territories in the free enjoyment of their liberty, property, and religion; and the laws of the United States, relative to the collection of revenue, and the importation of persons of colour, shall be extended to the said territories; and the President of the United States shall be, and he is hereby, authorized, within the term aforesaid, to establish such districts, for the collection of the revenue, and, during the recess of Congress, to appoint such officers, whose commissions shall expire at the end of the next session of Congress, to enforce the said laws, as to him shall seem expedient.
Appropriation.Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That the sum of twenty thousand dollars is hereby appropriated for the purpose of carrying this act into effect, to be paid out of any moneys in the treasury not otherwise appropriated, and to be applied under the direction of the President of the United States.
When this act shall take effect.Sec. 4. And be it further enacted, That this act shall take effect, and be in force, whenever the aforesaid treaty, providing for the cession of said territories to the United States, shall have been ratified by the king of Spain, and the ratifications exchanged, and the king of Spain shall be ready to surrender said territory to the United States, according to the provisions of said treaty.
Approved, March 3, 1819.