This is an action brought in the circuit court of the United States for the Eastern district of Missouri against John Winterbottom as principal, and the other defendants as sureties, on a bond given by Winter-bottom to the state of Missouri as collector of the revenue of the county of Knox, in said state. No copy of the bond is found in the record, but the allegation of the petition in regard to the substance of it is 'that on the thirtieth day of December, 1878, said Winterbottom as principal, and the other defendants as sureties, executed a bond, whereby they acknowledged themselves to be held and firmly bound unto the state of Missouri in the sum of $100,000, for the payment of which they bound themselves, their heirs, executors, and administrators; that said bond was conditioned that said Winterbottom should faithfully and punctually collect and pay over all state, county, and other revenue for two years next ensuing the first day of March, 1879, and should in all things faithfully perform all the duties of the said office of collector according to law, and that said bond was, on the day last aforesaid, approved by the said county court.'
The petition also declares 'that by law it was the duty of said Winterbottom, as such collector, to collect all county taxes of said county in money, except that he was authorized and required to receive any county warrants issued by said county, when presented to him by the legal holder thereof, in payment of any county tax existing against said holder and accruing to said county; that he was not required or authorized to receive any such warrant from any one other than the legal holder thereof, and not from such holder except in payment of a county tax assessed against him; that the legal holder of a county warrant is the person to whom the same is issued as payee, or to whom the same has been transferred by one or more assignments in full; that by law all county warrants must be made payable to a person therein named, and no county warrant can be made payable to bearer, and any county warrant payable to bearer is null and void.'
