Constitution of 1819 Ordinance

This Convention, for and in behalf of the people inhabiting this State, do accept the propositions offered by the act of Congress, under which they are assembled; and this Convention, for and in behalf of the people inhabiting this State, Do ordain, agree, and declare, that they forever disclaim all right and title to the waste or unappropriated lands lying within this state; and that the same shall be and remain at the sole and entire disposition of the United States; and, moreover, that each and every tract of land, sold by the United States after the first day of September next, shall be and remain exempt from any tax, laid by the order or under the authority of this state, whether for state, county, township, parish, or any other purpose whatsoever for the term of five years from and after the respective days of sales thereof; and that the lands belonging to the citizens of the United States, residing out of the limits of this state, shall never be taxed higher than the lands belonging to persons residing therein; and that no tax shall be imposed on lands the property of the United States; and that all navigable waters within this state shall forever remain public highways, free to the citizens of this state and of the United States, without any tax, duty, impost, or toll therefor; imposed by this, state: and this ordinance is hereby declared irrevocable, without the consent of the United States.

Done in Convention, at Huntsville, this second day of August, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and nineteen, and of American Independence the forty-fourth.
J. W. WALKER,
President of the Convention, and Representative from Madison County.
Madison County.
Clement C. Clay, Henry Minor,
John Leigh Townes, Gabriel Moore,
Henry Chambers, John M. Taylor.
Lemuel Mead,

Monroe County.
John Murphy, James Pickens,
John Watkins, Thomas Wiggins.

Blount County.
Issac Brown, Gabriel Hanby.
John Brown,

Limestone County.
Thomas Bibb, Nicholas Davis.
Beverly Hughes,

Shelby County.
George Phillips, Thomas Amis Rogers.

Montgomery County.
John Dandridge Bibb, James W. Armstrong.

Washington County.
Israel Pickens, Henry Hitchcock.

Tuskaloosa County.
Marmaduke Williams, John L. Tindal.

Lawrence County.
Arthur F. Hopkins, Daniel Wright.

Franklin County.
William Metcalf, Richard Ellis.

Cotaco County.
Thomas D. Crabb, Melkijah Vaughan.

Clark County.
Reuben Saffold, James Magoffin.

Cahawba County - Littlepage Simms.

Conecuh County - Samuel Cook.

Dallas County - William R. King.

Marengo County - Washington Thompson.

Marion County - John D. Terrill.

Lauderdale County - Hugh M'Vay.

St. Clair County - David Conner.

Autauga County - James Jackson.

Baldwin County - Harry Toulmin.

Mobile County - S. H. Garrow.

Attest, JOHN CAMPBELL, Secretary of the Convention.

In obedience to the ninth section of an act of Congress, entitled "An act to enable the people of the Alabama 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 in conformity with a Resolution of the Convention assembled by virtue of said Act, I do hereby certify the above and foregoing to be a true copy of the Constitution of the State of Alabama.

Given under my hand, at Huntsville, this 2d August, 1819.
J. W. WALKER, President of the Convention