History of Pittsburgh and Environs (Volume 2); From Prehistoric Days to the Beginning of the American Revolution (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. Pittsburgh as a City. Pittsburgh became a city, under a special act of the Legislature of Pennsylvania, March 18, 1816. Under this act, in the interval between its passage and the formal "erection of the municipality," July 5th, the election of the members of councils and such other elective officials as were prescribed, preparations were made therefor. The municipal act provided that "voters should consist of persons who had resided within the borough for one year and had paid a borough tax; that they should meet on the first Tuesday in July, 1816, to elect fifteen persons for a Common Council and nine persons for a Select Council; that such persons should divide themselves into three classes for one, two and three years' service; that the councils so chosen should make all laws, regulations and ordinances for the government of the city; that during their deliberations they should keep open doors to the inhabitants; that the governor should appoint one recorder and twelve aldermen, each having the powers of a justice of the peace; that the borough aldermen should continue as such under the new city government until their official terms should expire, that the recorder should be compensated by the State with $600 a year; that both councils should meet on the second Tuesday in July, 1816, to elect viva voce one of the aldermen to the office of mayor; that the latter should have all the powers of an alderman, should preside over the Mayor's Court, should execute the city laws, and should continue until his successor was elected and qualified; that the Mayor's Court should consist of the mayor, recorder and city aldermen, or any four of them, who were specially empowered to try forgeries, burglaries, larcenies, assaults and batteries, riots, routs and unlawful ass...