154 SOLDIERS' NATIONAL CEMETERY.
SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in General Assembly met, and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same, That the titles to the said lands purchased, as set forth in the foregoing preamble, are hereby ratified and confirmed, and shall vest and remain in said Commonwealth, in fee simple, in trust for all the States having soldiers buried in said grounds; and the said grounds shall be devoted in perpetuity to the purpose for which they were purchased, namely: for the burial and place of final rest of the remains of the soldiers who fell in defence of the Union, in the battle of Gettysburg; and, also, the remains of the soldiers who fell at other points north of the Potomac river, in the several encounters with the enemy during the invasion of LEE, in the summer of one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, or died thereafter in consequence of wounds received in said battle and during said invasion.
SECTION 2. That B. W. Norris, of the State of Maine, _____ _____ of the State of New Hampshire, PAUL DILLINGHAM, of the State of Vermont, HENRY EDWARDS, of the State of Massachusetts, JOHN R. BARTLETT, of the State of Rhode Island, ALFRED COIT, of the State of Connecticut, EDWARD COOPER, of the State of New York, _____ _____of the State of New Jersey, DAVID WILLS, of the State of Pennsylvania, BENJAMIN DEFORD, of the State of Maryland, JOHN R. LATTIMER, of the State of Delaware, _____ _____of the State of West Virginia, GORDON LOFLAND, of the State of Ohio, JOHN G. STEPHENSON, of the State of Indiana CLARK E. CARR, of the State of Illinois, W. Y. SELLECK, of the State of Wisconsin, THOMAS WHITE FERRY, of the State of Michigan, _____ ______of the State of Minnesota, being one Commissioner from each State, having soldiers buried in said Cemetery, be and they and their successors are hereby created a body politic in law, under the name, style and title of the SOLDIERS NATIONAL CEMETERY, and by
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that name, style and title shall have perpetual succession, and be able and capable in law to have and use a common seal, to sue and be sued, plead and be impleaded, in all courts of law and equity, and to do all such other things as are incident to a corporation.
SECTION 3. The care and management of the grounds referred to in the preamble and first section of this act, are hereby entrusted solely to the commissioners named in the second section of the same, and those hereafter appointed to represent the States therein named, and their successors in office; the said commissioners shall constitute a board of managers, whose duty it shall be, out of funds that may be in the hands of the treasurer of the corporation, by State appropriations, or otherwise, to remove the remains of all the soldiers referred to in the first section of this act, that have not already been removed to the Cemetery, and have them properly interred therein; and, also, to lay out, fence and ornament, to divide and arrange into suitable plots and burial lots, establish carriage-ways, avenues and foot-ways, erect buildings, and a monument, or monuments, and suitable marks to designate the graves, and generally to do all other things in their judgment necessary and proper to be done to adapt the ground and premises to the uses for which it has been purchased and set apart.
[Underlined in red in orig {TWM)]
SECTION 4. The business of the corporation shall be conducted by the commissioners aforesaid, and their successors in office; the said commissioners shall meet within sixty days after the passage of this act, and organize by electing one of their number president; they shall also appoint a secretary and treasurer, and shall have power to employ such other officers and agents as may be needful; they shall require of the treasurer to enter into bonds, to the corporation, in double the probable amount of money that may be in his hands at any one time during his term of office, with two or more sufficient sureties, conditioned for the faithful discharge of his duties, and the correct accounting for and paying over of the money; which said bond or bonds, shall be approved by the court of common pleas of Adams county, and recorded in the office of the recorder of deeds, in and for said county; the term of office of the officers of the board of commissioners aforesaid shall expire on the first day of January, of each and every year, or as soon thereafter as their successors may be duly chosen and qualified to act.
SECTION 5. At the first meeting of the commissioners heretofore named, they shall be divided, by lot, into three classes, and the term of office of the first class shall expire on the first day of January, Anno Domini one thousand eight hundred and sixty-five ; the second class, on the first day of January, Anno Domini one thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, and the third class on the first day of January, Anno Domini one thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven; the vacancies thus occurring shall be filled by the Gov-
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ernors of the States which the said commissioners represented; and the persons thus appointed to fill such vacancies, shall hold their office, as commissioners aforesaid, for the term of three years. In case of the neglect, or failure, of the Governor of any State, having burial lots in the Cemetery, to fill such vacancy, the board of commissioners may supply the place by appointing a citizen of the particular State which is not represented in the board by reason of such vacancy; any vacancies not yet filled, or hereafter occurring, in the board of commissioners, by death, resignation, or otherwise, shall be filled, by appointment, for the unexpired term, by the Governor of the State which the person represented, or in case of failure by such Governor to make said appointment, then the place shall be supplied as last above indicated; such other States of the Union, not having burial lots in said Cemetery, but that may at any time hereafter desire to be represented in this corporation, shall have the privilege of nominating a Commissioner to represent them severally in the board of commissioners, and thereafter pay their proportionate share of the expense of maintaining said Cemetery.
SECTION 6. The board of commissioners shall annually, at the end of each fiscal year, make a report of the condition and management of the Cemetery; which report shall contain a detailed statement of the receipts and expenditures of the corporation, and a copy thereof shall be forwarded to the Governor of each State represented in the corporation. The expenses incident to the removal of the dead, the enclosing and ornamenting the Cemetery, and all the work connected therewith, and its future maintenance, shall he apportioned among the States connecting themselves with the corporation, according to their population, as indicated by their representation in the House of Representatives of the United States.
Section 7. The board of commissioners shall adopt such by-laws, rules, and regulations as they may deem necessary for their meetings and government, and for the government of their officers, agents and employees, and for the care and protection of the cemetery grounds, and the property of the corporation: Provided, Said by-law, rules, and regulations, be not inconsistent with the Constitution and laws of the United States, the Constitution and laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and this act of incorporation.
SECTION 8. The board of commissioners shall have no power to appropriate any of the funds of the corporation as a compensation for their services as commissioners.
SECTION 9. The grounds and property of said Cemetery shall be forever free from the levy of any State, county, or municipal taxes; and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania hereby releases, and exempts, the corporation created by this act of Assembly, from the payment of any enrolment tax, or
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any tax, or taxes, whatever, that might be imposed by existing laws; all the laws of this Commonwealth now in force, or which may hereafter be enacted, for the protection of cemeteries, burial grounds, and places of sepulture, shall apply with full force and effect to the SOLDIERS' NATIONAL CEMETERY, hereby incorporated, immediately from and after the passage of this act.
SECTION 10. The corporation of the SOLDIERS' NATIONAL CEMETERY shall have power to receive appropriations from the United States, and from the State Legislatures, and also devises, and bequests, gifts, annuities, and all other kinds of property, real and personal, for the purposes of the burial of the dead, enclosing and ornamenting the grounds, and maintaining the same, and erecting a monument, or monuments, therein.
APPROVED-The twenty-fifth day of March, Anno Domini one thousand eight hundred and sixty-four.
A. G. CURTIN.