[SIXTEENTH CONGRESS, FIRST SESSION.]
An Act to authorize the people of Missouri Territory to
form a constitution and State government, and for the admission of such State
into the Union on an equal footing with the original States, and to prohibit
slavery in certain Territories.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives
of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the inhabitants
of that portion of the Missouri Territory included within the boundaries
hereinafter designated, be, and they are hereby, authorized to form for
themselves a constitution and State government, and to assume such name as they
shall deem proper; and the said State, when formed, shall be admitted into the
Union upon an equal footing with the original States in all respects
whatsoever.
SEC. 2. And be it further enacted,
That the said State shall consist of all the territory included within the
following boundaries, to wit: Beginning in the middle of the Mississippi River,
on the parallel of thirty-six degrees of north latitude; thence west along that
parallel of latitude to the Saint François River; thence up, and following the
course of that river, in the middle of the main channel thereof, to the
parallel of latitude of thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes; thence west,
along the same, to a point where the said parallel is intersected by a
meridian-line passing through the middle of the mouth of the Kansas River,
where the same empties into the Missouri River; thence from the point aforesaid
north, along the said meridian-line, to the intersection of the parallel of
latitude which passes through the rapids of the river Des Moines, making the
said line to correspond with the Indian boundary-line; thence east, from the
point of intersection last aforesaid, along the said parallel of latitude, to
the middle of the channel of the main fork of the said river Des Moines; thence
down and along the middle of the main channel of the said river Des Moines to
the mouth of the same, where it empties into the Mississippi River; thence due
east to the middle of the main channel of Mississippi River; thence down, and
following the course of the Mississippi River, in the middle of the main
channel thereof, to the place of beginning: Provided, The
State shall ratify the boundaries aforesaid: And provided also, That
the said State shall have concurrent jurisdiction on the river Mississippi, and
every other river bordering on the said State, so far as the said rivers shall
form a common boundary to the said State and any other State or States, now or
hereafter to be formed and bounded by the same, such rivers to be common to
both; and that the river Mississippi, and the navigable rivers and waters
leading into the same, shall be common highways, and forever free, as well to
the inhabitants of the said State as to other citizens of the United States,
without any tax, duty, impost, or toll therefor imposed by the said State.
SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That
all free white male citizens of the United States, who shall have arrived at
the age of twenty-one years, and have resided in said Territory three months
previous to the day of election, and all other persons qualified to vote for
representatives to the general assembly of the said Territory, shall be
qualified to be elected, and they are hereby qualified and authorized to vote
and choose representatives to form a convention, who shall be apportioned amongst
the several counties as follows:
From the county of Howard, five representatives.
From the county of Cooper, three representatives.
From the county of Montgomery, two representatives.
From the county of Pike, one representative.
From the county of Lincoln, one representative.
From the county of Saint Charles, three representatives.
From the county of Franklin, one representative.
From the county of Saint Louis, eight representatives.
From the county of Jefferson, one representative.
From the county of Washington, three representatives.
From the county of Saint Genevieve, four representatives.
From the county of Madison, one representative.
From the county of Cape Girardeau, five representatives.
From the county of New Madrid, two representatives.
From the county of Wayne, and that portion of the county of
Lawrence that falls within the boundaries herein designated, one
representative.
And the election for the representatives aforesaid shall be holden
on the first Monday and two succeeding days of May next, throughout the several
counties aforesaid in the said Territory, and shall be in every respect held
and conducted in the same manner and under the same regulations as is
prescribed by the laws of the said Territory regulating elections therein for
members of the general assembly, except that the returns of the election in
that portion of Lawrence County included in the boundaries aforesaid shall be
made to the county of Wayne, as is provided in other cases under the laws of
said Territory.
SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That
the members of the convention thus duly elected shall be, and they are hereby,
authorized to meet at the seat of government of said Territory, on the second
Monday of the month of June next; and the said convention, when so assembled,
shall have power and authority to adjourn to any other place in the said
Territory, which to them shall seem best for the convenient transaction of
their business; and which convention, when so met, shall first determine, by a
majority of the whole number elected, whether it be or be not expedient at that
time to form a constitution and State government for the people within the said
Territory, as included within the boundaries above designated; and, if it be
deemed expedient, the convention shall be, and hereby is, authorized to form a
constitution and State government; or, if it be deemed more expedient, the said
convention shall provide by ordinance for electing representatives to form a
constitution or frame of government; which said representatives shall be chosen
in such manner, and in such proportion, as they shall designate, and shall meet
at such time and place as shall be prescribed by the said ordinance; and shall then
form for the people of said Territory, within the boundaries aforesaid, a constitution
and State government: Provided, That the same, whenever formed, shall be
republican, and not repugnant to the Constitution of the United States; and
that the legislature of said State shall never interfere with the primary
disposal of the soil by the United States, nor with any regulations Congress
may find necessary for securing the title in such soil to the bona-fide purchasers;
and that no tax shall be imposed on lands the property of the United States;
and in no case shall non-resident proprietors be taxed higher than residents.
Sec. 5. And be it further enacted, That,
until the next general census shall be taken, the said State shall be entitled
to one Representative in the House of Representatives of the United States.
SEC. 6. And be it further enacted, That
the following propositions be, and the same are hereby, offered to the
convention of the said Territory of Missouri, when formed, for their free
acceptance or rejection, which, if accepted by the convention, shall be obligatory
upon the United States:
First. That section numbered sixteen in every
township, and when such section has been sold, or otherwise disposed of, other
lands, equivalent thereto and as contiguous as may be, shall be granted to the
State for the use of the inhabitants of such township, for the use of schools.
Second. That all salt-springs, not exceeding
twelve in number, with six sections of land adjoining to each, shall be granted
to the said State, for the use of said State, the same to be selected by the
legislature of the said State, on or before the first day of January, in the
year one thousand eight hundred and twenty-five, and the same, when so
selected, to be used under such terms, conditions, and regulations as the
legislature of said State shall direct: Provided, That no salt-spring,
the right whereof now is, or hereafter shall be, confirmed or adjudged to any
individual or individuals, shall, by this section, be granted to said
State: And provided also, That the legislature shall
never sell or lease the same, at any one time, for a longer period than ten
years, without the consent of Congress.
Third. That 5 per cent. of the net proceeds of the
sale of lands lying within the said Territory, or State, and which shall be
sold by Congress, from and after the first day of January next, after deducting
all expenses incident to the same, shall be reserved for making public roads
and canals, of which three-fifths shall be applied to those objects within the
State, under the direction of the legislature thereof; and the other two-fifths
in defraying, under the direction of Congress, the expenses to be incurred in
making of a road or roads, canal or canals, leading to the said State.
Fourth. That four entire sections of land be,
and the same are hereby, granted to the said State, for the purpose of fixing
their seat of government thereon, which said sections shall, under the
direction of the legislature of said State, be located, as near as may be, in
one body, at any time, in such townships and ranges as the legislature
aforesaid may select, on any of the public lands of the United States: Provided, That
such locations shall be made prior to the public sale of the lands of the
United States surrounding such location.
Fifth. That thirty-six sections, or one entire
township, which shall be designated by the President of the United States,
together with the other lands heretofore reserved for that purpose, shall be
reserved for the use of a seminary of learning, and vested in the legislature of
said State, to be appropriated solely for the use of such seminary by the said
legislature: Provided, That the five foregoing propositions
herein offered are on the condition that the convention of the said State shall
provide, by an ordinance, irrevocable without the consent of the United States,
that every and each tract of land sold by the United States, from and after the
first day of January next, shall remain exempt from any tax laid by order or
under the authority of the State, whether for State, county, or township, or
any other purpose whatever, for the term of five years from and after the day
of sale: And further, That the bounty-lands granted, or
hereafter to be granted, for military services during the late war, shall,
while they continue to be held by the patentees, or their heirs, remain exempt
as aforesaid from taxation for the term of three years from and after the date
of the patents respectively.
SEC. 7. And be it further enacted, That
in case a constitution and State government shall be formed for the people of
the said Territory of Missouri, the said convention or representatives, as soon
thereafter as may be, shall cause a true and attested copy of such
constitution, or frame of State government, as shall be formed or provided, to
be transmitted to Congress.
Sec. 8. And be it further enacted, That
in all that territory ceded by France to the United States, under the name of
Louisiana, which lies north of thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes north
latitude, not included within the limits of the State contemplated by this act,
slavery and involuntary servitude, otherwise than in the punishment of crimes,
whereof the parties shall have been duly convicted, shall be, and is hereby,
forever prohibited: Provided always, That any person escaping into
the same from whom labor or service is lawfully claimed in any State or
Territory of the United States, such fugitive may be lawfully reclaimed, and
conveyed to the person claiming his or her labor or services as aforesaid.
APPROVED, March 6, 1820.
SOURCES: Benjamin Perley Poore, Compiler, The Federal and State Constitutions, Colonial Charters, and Other
Organic Laws of the United States, Part 2, p. 1102-4
