2133. All acts or parts of acts heretofore passed, relating to the mint and coins of the United States, which are inconsistent with the provisions of this act are hereby repealed.(1) 2134. Branches of the mint of the United States shall be established as follows: one branch at the city of New Orleans for the coinage of gold and silver; one branch at the town of Charlotte, in Mecklinburg county, in the state of North Carolina, for the coinage of gold only; and one branch at cr near Dahlohnega, in Lumpkin county, in the state of Georgia, also for the coinage of gold only. And for the purpose of purchasing sites, erecting suitable buildings, and completing the necessary combinations of machinery for the several branches aforesaid, the following sums, to be paid out of any money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated, shall be, and hereby are, appropriated for the branch at New Orleans, the sum of two hundred thousand dollars: for the branch at Charlotte, fifty thousand dollars for the branch at Dahlohnega, fifty thousand dollars.(2) 2135. For conducting the business of the branches, the following officers shall be appointed, upon the nomination of the president, and with the advice and consent of the senate: At New Orleans, one superintendent, one treasurer, one assayer, one melter and refiner, and one coiner: At Charlotte and Dahlohnega, severally, one superintendent, who shall also perform the duties of treasurer, one assayer, who shall also perform the duties of melter and refiner, and one coiner: And the annual salaries of the said officers shall be as follows: For the branch at New Orleans, to the superintendent, $2500; to the treasurer, assayer, the melter and refiner, and the coiner, each $2000: For the branches at Charlotte and Dahlohnega, to the superintendent, $2000, and to the assayer and the coiner, each $1500. The superintendent of each mint shall engage and employ as many clerks, and as many subordinate workmen and servants, as shall be provided for by law, to whom shall be paid at New Orleans, to two clerks, $1200 each; to the subordinate workmen and servants, not exceeding twenty in number, such wages and allowances as are customary and reasonable, according to their respective stations and occupations: For the branches at Charlotte and Dahlonega, to the clerks, not exceeding one at each branch, $1000; and to the subordinate workmen and servants, not exceeding the number of five at each of said branches, such wages and allowances as are customary and reasonable, according to their respective stations and occupations.(3) The officers and clerks to be appointed under this act, before entering upon the duties thereof, shall take an oath or affirmation before some judge of the United States, faithfully and diligently to perform the duties thereof; and shall each become bound to the United States of America, with one or more sureties, to the satisfaction of the director of the mint and the secretary of the treasury, with condition for the faithful and diligent performance of the duties of their offices.(4) 2136. The general direction of the business of the said branches of the mint of the United States shall be under the control and regulation of the director of the mint at Philadelphia, subject to the approbation of the secretary of the treasury; and for that purpose it shall be the duty of the said director to prescribe such regulations, and require such returns, periodically, and occasionally, as shall appear to him to be necessary for the purpose of carrying into effect the intention of this act in establishing the said branches; also, for the purpose of discriminating the coin which shall be stamped at each branch, and at the mint itself; also, for the purpose of preserving uni (1) Act 18th Jan. 1837, sec. 38. (2) Act 3d March, 1835, sec. 1. (3) Ibid. sec. 2.--13th Feb. 1837,sec. 1. (4) Act 3d March, 1835, sec. 3. formity of weight, form, and fineness in the coins stamped at each place; and for that purpose, to require the transmission and delivery to him, at the mint, from time to time, such parcels of the coinage of each branch as he shall think proper to be subjected to such assays and tests as he shall direct.(1) 2137. All the laws, and parts of laws, made for the regulation of the mint of the United States, and for the government of the officers and persons employed therein, and for the punishment of all offences connected with the mint or coinage of the United States, shall be, and the same are hereby declared to be in full force, in relation to each of the branches of the mint by this act established, so far as the same shall be applicable thereto.(2) 2138. For the purpose of securing a due conformity in the weight of coins of the United States, the brass troy weight procured by the minister of the United States at London, in the year 1827, for the use of the mint, and now in custody of the director thereof, shall be the standard troy pound of the mint of the United States, conformably to which the coinage thereof shall be regulated.(3) Such director shall procure and safely keep a series of standard weights, corresponding to the aforesaid troy pound, consisting of an one pound weight, and the requisite subdivisions and multiples thereof, from the hundredth part of a grain to twenty-five pounds. And the troy weights ordinarily employed in the transactions of the mint shall be regulated according to the above standards, at least once in every year; and their accuracy tested annually in the presence of the assay commissioners, on the day of the annual assay.(4) 2139. It shall be lawful for the director of the mint to receive and cause to be assayed, bullion not intended for coinage, and to cause certificates to be given of the fineness thereof, by such officer as he shall designate for that purpose, at such rates of charge, to be paid by the owner of said bullion, and under such regulations as the said director may, from time to time, establish.(5) 2140. The money of account of the United States shall be expressed in dollars, or units, dimes, or tenths; cents or hundredths; and mills, or thousandths; a dime being the tenth part of a dollar; a cent the hundredth part of a dollar; a mill the thousandth part of a dollar; and all accounts in the public offices, and all proceedings in the courts of the United States, shall be kept and had in conformity to this regulation. (See article 194, p. 43.)(6) 2141. All foreign gold and silver coins, (except Spanish milled dollars, and parts of such dollars,) which shall be received in payment for moneys due to the United States, after the time when the coining of gold and silver coins shall begin at the mint of the United States, shall, previously to their being issued in circulation, be coined anew.(7) 2142. No copper coins or pieces whatsoever, except cents and half cents, shall pass current as money, or shall be paid or offered to be paid, or received in payment for any debt, demand, claim, matter or thing whatsoever; and all copper coins or pieces, except the cents and half cents which shall be paid or offered to be paid, or received in payment contrary to the prohibition afore said, shall be forfeited, and every person by whom any of them shall have been so paid, or offered to be paid, or received in payment, shall also forfeit (1) Act 3d March, 1835, sec. 4. (2) Ibid. sec. 5. (3) Act 19th May, 1828, sec. 2. (4) Ibid. sec. 3. (5) Ibid. sec. 7. (6) Act 2d April, 1792, sec. 20. the sum of ten dollars, and the said forfeiture and penalty shall and may be recovered, with costs of suit, for the benefit of any person or persons by whom information of the incurring thereof shall have been given.(1) ART. 2143. Spanish milled dollars, at the rate of one hundred cents for each, the actual weight whereof shall not be less than seventeen pennyweights and seven grains, and in proportion for the parts of a dollar, shall pass current as money within the United States, and be a legal tender for the payment of all debts and demands.(2) The following silver coins shall be of legal value, and shall pass current as money within the United States, by tale, for the payment of all debts and demands, at the rate of one hundred cents the dollar; that is to say, the dollars of Mexico, Peru, Chili, and Central America, of not less weight than four hundred and fifteen grains each, and those re-stamped in Brazil of the like weight, of not less fineness than ten ounces fifteen pennyweights of pure silver, in the troy pound of twelve ounces of standard silver; and the five franc pieces of France, when of not less fineness than ten ounces and sixteen pennyweights in twelve ounces troy weight of standard silver, and weighing not less than three hundred and eighty-four grains each at the rate of ninety-three cents each.(3) 2144. It shall be the duty of the secretary of the treasury to cause assays of the aforesaid silver coins, made current by this act, to be had at the mint of the United States at least once in every year, and to make report of the result thereof to Congress.(4) 2145. The following gold coins shall be received in all payments on account of public lands, at the several and respective rates following, and not otherwise, viz: the gold coins of Great Britain and Portugal, and of their present standard, at the rate of one hundred cents for every twenty-seven grains, or eighty-eight cents and eighty-ninths per pennyweight: the gold coins of France, of their present standard, at the rate of one hundred cents for every twenty-seven and a half grains, or eighty-seven and a quarter cents per pennyweight; and the gold coins of Spain, of their present standard, at the rate of one hundred cents for every twenty-eight and a half grains, or eighty-four cents per pennyweight.(5)* (1) Act 10th May, 1792, sec. 3. (2) Act 10th April, 1806. (3) Act 25th June, 1834, sec. 1. (4) Ibid. sec. 2. (5) Act 3d March, 1823, sec. 1. Such foreign gold coins were receivable in payment of debts by Act of January 3d, 1819, until the first day of November, 1819, after which time foreign gold coins ceased to be a tender within the United States, for the payment of debts or demands. CHAPTER III. OF BANK NOTES RECEIVABLE AND PAYABLE BY THE UNITED STATES. Bank notes, what, receivable in pay ment to U. S.-gold and silver only legal tender 2146 2146. Hereafter, no bank notes of less denomination than ten dollars, and from and after the third day of March, anno domini, eighteen hundred and thirty-seven, no bank note of less denomination than twenty dollars, shall be offered in payment in any case whatsoever in which money is to be paid by the United States or the post office department, nor shall any bank note, of any denomination, be so offered, unless the same shall be payable, and paid on demand, in gold or silver coin, at the place where issued, and which shall not be equivalent to specie at the place where offered, and convertible into gold or silver upon the spot, at the will of the holder, and without delay or loss to him: Provided, That nothing herein contained shall be construed to make any thing but gold or silver a legal tender by any individual, or by the United States.(1) (1) Act April 14th, 1836, sec. 2. CIVIL CODE. 2147. The civil code includes the laws which determine the duties of the citizens towards each other, and which provide for their comfort and convenience, but which are not directly connected with the administration of the government. From the nature of the constitution of the United States, there are but few subjects of this character embraced by the legislation of the general government. The relations of civil life, being chiefly regulated by the laws of the individual states. This division of the work, therefore, must necessarily be short, and its subjects much unconnected with each other. Still, upon the plan of this Digest, it has appeared indispensable, since it contains legislative provisions, which are neither political, commercial, nor criminal. Some of the matters treated under the title of "judicial power," might, perhaps, have been properly placed here, but their intimate connexion with others which were deemed rightly comprised by the political code, rendered it inexpedient to separate them. CHAPTER I. OF COPY-RIGHTS OF MAPS, CHARTS AND BOOKS, &c. ART. 2148. Any person or persons, being a citizen or citizens of the United States, or resident therein, who shall be the author or authors of any book or books, map, chart, or musical composition, which may be now made or composed, and not printed and published, or shall hereafter be made or composed, or who shall invent, design, etch, engrave, work, or cause to be engraved, etched, or worked from his own design, any print or engraving, and the executors, administrators, or legal assigns of such person or persons, shall have the sole right and liberty of printing, re-printing, publishing, and vending such book or books, map, chart, musical composition, print, cut, or engraving, in whole or in part, for the term of twenty |