Powers of the corporation.one offence; and in case of the inability of such free negro or mulatto to pay and satisfy any such penalty and cost thereon, to cause such free negro or mulatto to be confined to labour for such reasonable time, not exceeding six calendar months for any one offence, as may be deemed equivalent to such penalty and costs; to cause all vagrants, idle or disorderly persons, all persons of evil life or ill fame, and all such as have no visible means of support, or are likely to become chargeable to the city as paupers, or are found begging or drunk in or about the streets, or loitering in or about tippling houses, or who can show no reasonable cause of business or employment in the city; and all suspicious persons; and all who have no fixed place of residence, or cannot give a good account of themselves; all evesdroppers and night walkers; all who are guilty of open profanity or grossly indecent language or behaviour publicly in the streets; all public prostitutes and such as lead a notoriously lewd or lascivious course of life; and all such as keep public gaming tables or gaming houses, to give security for their good behaviour for a reasonable time, and to indemnify the city against any charge for their support; and in case of their refusal or inability to give such security, to cause them to be confined to labour for a limited time, not exceeding one year at a time, unless such security should be given sooner given; but if they shall afterwards be found again offending, such security may be again required, and for want thereof, the like proceedings may be again had, from time to time, as often as may be necessary; to prescribe the terms and conditions upon which free negroes, mulattoes and others, who can show no visible means of support, may reside in the city; to cause the avenues, streets, lanes and alleys to be kept clean, and to appoint officers for that purpose;Power to authorize the drawing of lotteries.
Proviso. to authorize the drawing of lotteries for effecting any important improvement in the city, which the ordinary funds or revenue thereof will not accomplish:[1] Provided, that the amount to be raised in each year, shall not exceed the sum of ten thousand dollars: And provided also, that the object for which the money is intended to be raised, shall be first submitted to the President of the Untied States, and shall be approved of by him; to take care of, preserve and regulate the several burying grounds within the city; to provide for registering of births, deaths and marriages; to cause abstracts or minutes of all transfers of real property, both freehold and leasehold, to be lodged in the registry of the city at stated periods; to authorize night watches and patroles, and the taking up and confining by them in the night time, of all suspected persons; to punish by law, corporeally, any servant or slave guilty of a breach of any of their by-laws or ordinances, unless the owner or holder of such servant or slave, shall pay the fine annexed to the offence; and to pass all laws which shall be deemed necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested in the corporation or any of its officers, either by this act or any former act.
Sec. 7. And be it further enacted, That the marshal of the district of Columbia shall receive and safely keep within the jail for Washington county, at the expense of the city, all persons committed thereto under the sixth section of this act, until other arrangements be made by the corporation, for the confinement of offenders within the provisions of the said section. And in all cases where suit shall be brought before
- ↑ Where, by the charter granted by Congress, to the city of Washington, the corporation was empowered “to authorize the drawing of lotteries,” for effecting certain improvements in the city, and upon certain terms and conditions: Held, that the corporation was liable to the holder of a ticket in such lottery, for the price drawn against its number; although the managers appointed by the corporation to superintend such lottery, were empowered to sell, and had sold the entire lottery to a lottery dealer, for a gross sum, who was, by his agreement with them, to execute all the details of the scheme, as to the sale of the tickets, the drawings, and the payment of the prizes. Clarke v. The Corporation of Washington, 12 Wheat. 40; 6 Cond. Rep. 425.It seems that the power granted in the charter, “to authorize the drawing of lotteries,” cannot be exercised so as to discharge the corporation from its liability. Ibid.
