, 1860-02-23
Hancock CUnuty Railroad Subacrlp-
tlUn Ikepudi&,cL.

Railroad taxatiun has absorbed considerable
attention lately. Hancock county subscribed
one hundred thousand dollars 10 the stock Of
The Mississippi aud Wabash Railroad Eomppny,
and Il like amount to the Warsaw mud Rockford
t.a'lroad Company, in laiG. uadcr vate OF the
county ia Sept. 13;5, whereas bolh were sui,
Ipltecd II the people Is one proposition, which
tue Supreme Coult "f this State iu the case of
the i!uard Of Supervisors Of Fulton county vs.
the Mississippi and Wabash fiailroad Com panv.
u I'll. ;S3S. decided 10 be i fraud upon the peo.
pie, aad tt bc v"id.
tine hundred tl,Ous aud dollars Of bonds Of the
ctunty were issued to the mississippi aud Wa
bash l:a,lrcad Co,npsny, payable Ut the Ameri-
can Exchange Blnk y. l., unl forty -ei ehi thou
slud dollars were ISSUED to tie ". unh Il. Rail.
road Company, payable at the sa,nc place. Our
Supreme Ceur:, in the casc Of the Peoria aud
Oqua~ka Railroad Company rs. farewell
couuty, Il ILL.,, III, decided that municipal cur
poratlons have no power TO make their indebt-
c'iHess ravnblc ut any place except their Treas.
urer's Office.
IL >c.u!s tt:at tt.tre is no lar in Illinois au.
tho1izins cuuntcs to levy q ,ax, to pay in.
tese>t or principal IN Railroad bonds. That
tile county has tic right 10 subscribe stack
or borrow in"ncy lou certain conditions, J and
10 pleLge the 1Altl OF the county for it, pay
,ncnt, Iu, cannot levy special ta1 for itha,
rarnnse; that the interest and principal! must
bepaid out Of tile common county fund, ard that
no ,nurc than four mills cau bc lcsied for
county purposes. This county last fall, leried
q mills for ordinary county purposes, aud IL
eitcial Il .ltroad tax Of !. 10 uils-rnakiny u
crnts on the bundled dollars for county and
railroad purpuses-when the law only author
lies ~ CENTS On the hundred dollars for ati
county puiposcs- The Raj road tax, being 4
coauty tax iu fact, if legally leylcd, the Whole
county tax would be roid because the levy was
excessive. but the ordinary county INK being
right, and the raitro1d tax leyicd US spcctal
tax without authnsitr, is void.
The question was to-day presented 20 tie
lsoar.l III supervisors, and they decided By u
vnte of II to to repeal the order lcryinE the
Il ifroad tax. aud orde. ed the collectors to re-
fund such tax as they had already collected, to
Ill. tax pay Rs. au.l it not c4'IcI for bv next
meeting ol the Eosrd, 10 pay tho same in to the
l}oaEl, to be refunded.
The present opinion is, tlut thc Loads are ab-
solutrly void, for The reason tbat the two pro-
positions were submitted ns one, and that be.
ing the TACT, no vote was taken - to Subscrir-
tiops to either 1oad, tile submission being
fraud upon the voter; aud also being male
parable ut another place 1hnn the Treasurer +
otice, they we're issued without authority; aud
being 80 payable, they were notice 10 any pur-
cl,aser that they had been issued without au-
tlnr,,r. and were void.
1t is supposed that the IIurfa:c and .1ausoo
city bonds are al-o void, for the reason that
they are payable ont saiA cities respectively,
ana in foreign State-lf,e CITY having no ail.
fhofItr IN Issue SBcf bn',tb4