1996

BALTIMORE CITY.

BALTIMORE CITY.

LOCATED by 1729, ch. 12; July, 1732, ch. 14.

The limits thereof are defined by 1745, ch. 9; 1747, ch. 21 ; 1753, ch.

20; 1765, ch. 2; 1766, ch. 22; June, 1773, ch. 4; Nov. 1773, 21 ; 1781, ch.

24; April, 1782, ch. 2; Nov. 1782, ch. 8; 1784, ch. 39; 1816, ch. 209,

218.

CHARTERS.

AN ACT to erect Baltimore Town, in Baltimore County, into a City, and to

Incorporate the inhabitants thereof. — 1796, ch. 68.

Preamble.

WHEREAS, it is found by experience, that the good order,

health, peace and safety of large towns and cities, cannot be

preserved, nor the evils and accidents to which they are subject,

avoided or remedied, without an internal power, competent to

establish a police and regulation, fitted to their particular

circumstances, wants and exigencies ; therefore,

Baltimore

SEC. 2. Be it enacted, by the General Assembly of Maryland,

town erect-
ed into a

That Baltimore town, in Baltimore county, shall be, and is

city.

hereby erected into a city, by the name of the CITY OF BALTI-

MORE, and the inhabitants thereof constituted a body politic and

corporate, by the name of the Mayor and City Council of Balti-

more, and as such shall have perpetual succession, and by their

corporate name may sue and be sued, implead and be impleaded,

grant, receive, and do all other acts as natural persons, and may

purchase and hold real, personal and mixed property, or dis-

pose of the same for the benefit of the said city, and may have

and use a city seal, which may be broken or altered at pleasure.

City divided

The city of Baltimore shall be divided into eight wards, each

into eight
wards.

ward to contain as nearly as may be, an equal number of in-

habitants ; the first division shall be made by seven respectable

citizens, or a majority of them, to be appointed by the governor

and council; and the corporation of the said city thereafter, from

time to time shall cause a correct division of the said city to be

made into eight wards, according to the actual number of in-

habitants, which divisions shall be repeated as often as the in-

crease or decrease of inhabitants in any ward or wards shall

A further

render it necessary, in order to a just representation ; and when

division of
wards,

the inhabitants shall increase to forty thousand, it shall then

when to be
made

be divided into fifteen wards, and for any additional increase of

inhabitants, one new ward, only, shall be added for every twenty

thousand, in order to preserve, as nearly as may be, an equal

number of voters in each ward.

See 1817, ch. 148, sec. 1.

City coun-

SEC, 3. And be it enacted, That the council of the city of

cil to con-
sist of two

Baltimore shall consist of two branches, one whereof shall be

branches.

denominated the first branch, the other the second branch ; the

first branch shall consist of two members, of the most wise,