June 15, 1836
[Twenty-fourth Congress, First Session]
An Act for the admission of the State of Arkansas into the Union, and to provide for the due execution of the laws of the United States within the same, and for other purposes
Whereas, the people of the Territory of Arkansas did, on the thirtieth day of January, in the present year, by a convention of delegates called and assembled for that purpose, from for themselves a constitution and State government, which constitution and State government, so formed, is republican: And whereas the number of inhabitants within the said Territory exceeds forty-seven thousand seven hundred persons, computed according to the rule prescribed by the Constitution of the United States; and the said convention have, in their behalf, asked the Congress of the United States to admit the said Territory into the Union as a State, on an equal footing with the original States:
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the State of Arkansas shall be one, and is hereby declared to be one, of the United States of America, and admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original States in all respects whatever; and the said State shall consist of all the territory included within the following boundaries, to wit: Beginning in the middle of the main channel of the Mississippi River, on the parallel of thirty-six degrees north latitude, running from thence west, with the said parallel of latitude, to the Saint Francis River; thence up the middle of the main channel of said river to the parallel of thirty-six degrees, thirty minutes, north; from thence west to the southwest corner of the State of Missouri; and from thence to be bounded on the west, to the north bank of Red River, by the lines described in the first article of the treaty between the United States and the Cherokee Nation of Indians, west of the Mississippi, made and concluded at the city of Washington, on the twenty-sixth day of May, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and twenty-eight; and to be bounded on the south side of Red River by the Mexican boundary-line, to the northwest corner of the State of Louisiana; thence east, with the Louisiana State line, to the middle of the main channel of the Mississippi River; thence up the middle of the main channel of the said river to the thirty-sixth degree of north latitude, the point of beginning.
Sec. 2. 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. 3. And be it further enacted, That all the laws of the United States, which are not locally inapplicable, shall have the same force and effect within the said State of Arkansas as elsewhere within the United States.
Sec. 4. And be it further enacted, That the said State shall be one judicial district, and be called the Arkansas district; and a district court shall be held therein, to consist of one judge, who shall reside in the said district, and be called a district judge. He shall hold, at the seat of government of the said State, two sessions annually, on the first Mondays of April and November; and he shall, in all things, have and exercise the same jurisdiction and powers which were by law given to the judge of the Kentucky district, under an act entitled “An act to establish the judicial courts of the United States.” He shall appoint a clerk for the said district court, who shall reside and keep the records of the court, at the place of holding the same; and shall receive, for the services performed by him, the same fees to which the clerk of the Kentucky district is entitled for similar services.
Sec. 5. And be it further enacted, That there shall be allowed to the judge of the said district court the annual compensation of two thousand dollars, to commence from the date of his appointment, to be paid quarter-yearly at the Treasury of the United States.
Sec. 6. And be it further enacted, That there shall be appointed in the said district a person learned in the law, to act as attorney for the United States, who shall, in addition to his stated fees, be paid by the United States two hundred dollars, as a full compensation for all extra services.
Sec. 7. And be it further enacted, That a marshal shall be appointed for the said district, who shall perform the same duties, be subject to the same regulations and penalties, and be entitled to the same fees, as are prescribed to marshals in other districts; and he shall, moreover, be entitled to the sum of two hundred dollars annually, as a compensation for all extra services.
Sec. 8. And be it further enacted, That the State of Arkansas is admitted into the Union upon the express condition, that the people of the said State shall never interfere with the primary disposal of the public lands within the said State, nor shall they levy a tax on any of the lands of the United States within the said State; and nothing in this act shall be construed as an assent by Congress to all or to any of the propositions contained in the ordinance of the said convention of the people of Arkansas, nor to deprive the said State of Arkansas of the same grants, subject to the same restrictions, which were made to the State of Missouri, by virtue of an act entitled “An act to authorize the people of the 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,” approved the sixth day of March, one thousand eight hundred and twenty.
Approved,
June 15, 1836.
Source: The Federal and State Constitutions, Colonial Charters, and other Organic Laws of the States and Territories now or heretofore forming the United States of America, compiled and edited by Francis Newton Thorpe (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1909). Vol. I United States-Alabama-District of Columbia.
Comments