United States Statutes at Large/Volume 4/19th Congress/1st Session/Chapter 65
Chap. LXV.—An Act for the subscription of stock in the Dismal Swamp Canal Company.
Secretary of the Treasury to subscribe, for 600 shares of the capital stock of the Dismal Swamp Company.Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Secretary of the Treasury be, and he is hereby, authorized and directed to subscribe, in the name and for the use of the United States, for six hundred shares of the capital stock of the Dismal Swamp Canal, and to pay for the same, at such times, and in such proportions, as may be required by the existing rules and regulations of the said company.
Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, by the authority aforesaid, That the Secretary of the Treasury shall vote for the president and directors of said company, according to the said number of shares, and shall receive, upon said stock, the proportions of tolls and emoluments, which shall, from time to time, become due to the United States, on the shares of stock aforesaid.
This act to go into effect until the board of engineers shall examine said canal, and make a report, in writing, to the Secretary of War.
150,000 dollars appropriated to carry this act into effect.Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That this act shall not go into effect until the United States’ board of engineers shall examine said canal, and make a report, in writing, to the Secretary of War, that, in their opinion, the plan on which the canal is to be executed, will answer, as far as the circumstances will permit, as part of the chain of canals contemplated along the Atlantic Coast, and that in their opinion, the sum hereby authorized to be subscribed for will be sufficient to finish the canal according to said plan: And it is further provided, That to carry this act into effect, the sum of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars is hereby appropriated, to be paid out of any money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated.
The money subscribed on behalf of the United States to be actually expended wholly in the completion of the canal.Sec. 4. And be it further enacted, That the money subscribed on behalf of the United States shall be actually expended in the completion of the canal, and not in the payment of any debt or debts now owing by the company; and it shall be the duty of the Secretary of the Treasury, before the payment of any part of the money subscribed on behalf of the United States, to adopt such measures as shall insure the application of the same to the completion of the said canal, according to the plan proposed, and to no other purpose whatsoever.
Approved, May 18, 1826.