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The Act of 1871
CHAPTER 62, 1871
16 United States Statutes at Large 419
FORTY FIRST CONGRESS SESSION III.
CHAPTER 62, 1871 CHAP. LXII. --
An act to provide a Government for the District of Columbia.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States in Congress assembled, That all that part of the territory of the United States included within the limits of the District of Columbia be, and the same is hereby, created into a government by the name of the District of Columbia, by which name it is hereby constituted a body corporate for municipal purposes, and may contract and be contracted with, sue and be sued, plead and be impleaded, have a seal, and exercise all other powers of a municipal corporation not inconsistent with the Constitution and laws of the United States and the provisions of this act.