THE ORDINANCES OF THE CITY OF ST. LOUIS, STATE OF MISSOURI, DIGESTED AND REVISED BY THE COMMON COUNCIL OF SAID CITY, WITH THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES AND THE STATE ST. LOUIS: GEORGE KNAPP & CO., PRINTERS AND BINDERS. 1861. PREFACE. This work contains the Constitution of the United States, and of the State of Missouri, all Laws of the General Assembly which directly affect the municipal rights of the City of St. Louis, and all Ordinances of the City of a general and permanent nature. The last general Charter of the City was approved March 3, 1851, since which time no less than thirty-three Acts have been passed, amendatory of and supplementary thereto. By a resolution of the Common Council, the revisor was directed to make a compilation of such portions of the various City Charters as are now in force, in order to present in a complete and accessible form the existing chartered rights of the City. This has been done and is embraced within the volume of the work under the head of "Municipal Code." It is a codification of existing Charters, and it is believed will present a correct abstract, systematically arranged, of all the valid enactments of the General Assembly touching the municipal rights of the City. In every instance references have been made to the Act from which the several sections of the Code have been taken, as also the page in the preceding part of the work where they may be found. To render this Code, which is substantially the "City Charter," convenient for reference, it has been supplied with marginal notes and a carefully prepared Index. All extraneous matter has been excluded; but the Ordinance authorizing the revision requiring that the Constitutions of the United States and the State of Missouri, as also all previous Charters, should be inserted, the revisor has not felt at liberty to exclude them; although the subsequent action of the Council in directing a compilation of previous Charters might, perhaps, have justified their rejection. The Acts of the General Assembly relating to the City from the first Charter of the Town of St. Louis, in 1809, down to the 13th May, 1861, are all embraced in this volume; and although it is but rare that a reference to them is ever required in the ordinary transaction of City affairs, yet they are interesting as forming a connected history of our State legislation concerning the City, and as indicating her progress from small beginnings to her present position. The proof-sheets of every Ordinance have been read over and carefully compared with the engrossed bills in the Register's office, and where discrepancies have occurred between the original bills and the engrossments, the text of the latter has been followed, and interpolations in brackets made to indicate the fact. |