ART. 21. ] WASHINGTON COUNTY. 51

corporation, not exceeding in amount the sum of thirty-five
thousand dollars, to be appropriated to indemnifying, paying
and saving harmless all such person or persons who may have
incurred liability or assumed responsibility in ransoming the
said town from the requisitions and demands imposed upon the
inhabitants and property of the said town of Hagerstown and
its additions by the rebels in the summer of eighteen hundred
and sixty-four.

5. The mayor and council of Hagerstown are hereby author-
ized and empowered to levy on all the assessable property of
said town, a tax sufficient to liquidate or pay the whole amount
of said bonds, (thirty-five thousand dollars, ) or any part thereof
and the interest thereon, accruing from time to time as it may
become due; and also, if deemed expedient by the said mayor
and city council, to establish a sinking fund adequate to the
liquidation or redemption of said bonds in a period not exceed-
ing twenty years, said tax to be levied and collected as other
taxes of said corporation are levied and collected.

In force from January 24, 1865.
Chapter 59 enacts the following:

WHEREAS, it is represented to this General Assembly that the
mayor and council of Hagerstown, through inadvertence and
misapprehension, failed to take the oath of office, as prescribed
in the first article, sections seven and eight of the Constitution,
within the time therein prescribed; therefore,

6. All ordinances, laws, provisions and acts made, passed and
done since the thirtieth day of November, eighteen hundred and
sixty-four, by the mayor and council of Hagerstown, are hereby
made legal and valid, as if they, the said mayor and council had
complied with the provisions of article first, sections seven and
eight of the new Constitution; provided, the said mayor and
council take and subscribe the said oath of office on or before
the first day of May, eighteen hundred and sixty-five.

In force from March 20, 1865.