United States Statutes at Large/Volume 5/28th Congress/1st Session/Chapter 94
Chap. XCIV.—An Act to amend the act entitled “An act to incorporate the Alexandria Canal Company,” approved on the twenty-sixth day of May, eighteen hundred and thirty.
Act of May 26, 1830, ch. 104.
Persons injuring canal to pay a fine.Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That if any person or persons shall wilfully or maliciously, by any means whatever, injure, impair, or destroy any part of the Alexandria canal, or of its aqueducts, dams, locks, culverts, walls, embankments, bridges, buildings, or other works now constructed, or which may hereafter be constructed by the Alexandria Canal Company, under the authority of the beforementioned act, such person or persons so offending shall each of them, for every such offence, forfeit and pay a sum not less than five dollars, nor more than fifty dollars, to be recovered, with costs, in the name and for the use of said company, before any justice of the peace of the District of Columbia;Justice to issue warrant, and party convicted to be confined in jail.
Proviso. and any such justice may, on his own view, or on application to him made, verified by affidavit, issue his warrant, describing the injury committed; and upon conviction, such justice shall commit the offender to close jail, without bail or mainprise, until such fine and costs be paid, or until discharged by due course of law: Provided, however, That nothing in this section contained shall be so construed as to prevent the said company from recovering damages from any person or persons who may commit any of the trespasses aforesaid.
No person allowed to walk or ride upon the aqueduct over the Potomac.Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That it shall not be lawful for any person or persons, other than such as shall be engaged in navigating the said canal, or in the employment of the said company, to walk or ride over or upon the aqueduct erected by the said company over the Potomac river, or to lead or drive any animal over or upon the same; and every person offending herein shall be liable to a fine of not less than one dollar nor more than five dollars, for each offence, to be recovered with costs, in the name, and for the use of the said company, by warrant before any justice of the peace of the District of Columbia.
Canal company may pass by-laws.Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That the president and directors of the Alexandria Canal Company, or a majority of them, acting in behalf of the said company, shall be, and they are hereby authorized and empowered, from time to time, to pass all by-laws which may be necessary for the exercise of the powers vested in the said company by the beforementioned act, or which they may consider necessary for the orderly and convenient conducting of the trade and travel upon the said canal, its aqueducts, basins, and other works, and for preventing and removing impediments to the navigation thereof; and the same to alter or repeal at pleasure:Proviso.
Persons violating by-laws subject to a fine. Provided, That no such by-law be contrary to any law of the United States. And any person who shall wilfully offend against any such by-law, after a copy thereof shall have been set up for public inspection at least ten days at the toll house or houses on the said canal, shall, for every such offence, forfeit and pay to the said company the sum of five dollars, to be recovered with costs, in the name of the said company, by warrant before any justice of the peace in the District of Columbia.
Company may prescribe the form, &c. of boats.Sec. 4. And be it further enacted, That the said president and directors, or a majority of them, acting in behalf of the said company, may prescribe the form, dimensions, and equipments of the boats and floats to be used upon the said canal, with a view to prevent accidental injury to them, or to the works of the canal, in passing each other, or in passing by or through any of the said works: and if the owner, captain, or other person having charge of any boat or float, shall wilfully or negligently violate, or refuse to comply with, any such regulation, the said president and directors may require such owner, captain or other person, to withdraw his boat or float from the canal by one of the outlets thereof; or, in the event of his failure to do so, on reasonable notice, may order the same to be broken up and removed from the canal, or any of its basins, ponds, aqueducts, or other works; and in like manner, may be broken up and removed therefrom any boat or float, or other substance floating loose upon, or sunk therein, the owner of which is unknown, or if known, refuses or neglects, after reasonable notice, to remove the same; and the materials of every such broken boat, float or other substance, so broken up and removed, shall be sold under the direction of the said president and directors: and the proceeds of every such sale, after paying the costs of breaking up and removing the same, shall be paid over to the owner thereof.
Company may charge dockage and wharfage.Sec. 5. And be it further enacted, That it shall be lawful for the said company to charge the customary rates of dockage and wharfage upon vessels lying at, and goods, and other things laden or unladen at or upon any pier, mole, or wharf, which they may erect in the Potomac river in connextion with their said canal, and not interfering with the corporate rights of the city of Alexandria.
Rights of the company not to be impaired by this act.
Proviso.Sec. 6. And be it further enacted, That nothing in this act contained, shall be construed to impair any right possessed by the said company before the passage thereof: Provided always, That Congress may at any time alter or repeal the foregoing act, or any of its provisions.
Approved, June 17, 1844.