This is an action upon negotiable coupon bonds signed by the supervisor and clerk of the town of Concord, a municipal corporation existing under the township organization law of Illinois. They were executed in 1871. Each bond purports upon its face to have been 'issued under and by virtue of the law of the state of Illinois to authorize cities, towns, or townships within certain limits to appropriate moneys and levy a tax to aid the construction of the Chicago, Danville & Vincennes Railroad,' and pledges the faith of the township for the payment of the principal and interest. The act here referred to was passed March 7, 1867. 1 Priv. Laws Ill. 1867, p. 842 It authorizes all incorporated towns and cities, and towns acting under the township organization law, within certain territorial limits, (which includest he town of Concord,) to appropriate such sum of money as they deem proper to the Chicago, Danville & Vincennes Railroad Company to aid in the construction of its road, 'to be paid to said company as soon as the track of said road shall have been located and constructed through said city, town, or township, respectively:' provided, the appropriation is first sustained at the polls by a majority of the electors of the municipality. The act authorized and required the authorities of said townships, towns, or cities, respectively, 'to levy and collect a tax, and make such provisions as may be necessary and proper for the prompt payment' of the appropriation. It neither expressly nor by implication invested the municipal corporations embraced by its provisions with the power to issue commercial paper in payment of an appropriation so voted. We held in Claiborne Co. v. Brooks, 111 U.S. 400, 406, 4 Sup. Ct. Rep. 489, which was decided after the judgment below was rendered, that 'mere political bodies, constituted, as counties are, for the purpose of local police and administration, and have the power of levying taxes to pay all public charges created, have no power or authority to make and utter commercial paper of any kind, unless such power is expressly conferred upon them by law, or clearly implied from some power expressly given, which cannot be fairly exercised without it.' No such implication arises from the grant to a municipal corporation of power to appropriate monevs in aid of the construction of a railroad, accompanied by a provision directing the levy and collection of taxes to meet such appropriation, and prescribing no other mode of payment. Wells v. Supervisors, 102 U.S. 625, 631, 632; Ogden v. County of Daviess, Id. 634, 639. The provision in the act of 1867 that the money should be paid as soon as the road was located and constructed through the city, town, or township voting the appropriation, is inconsistent with the idea that such appropriation could be met, in the first instance, by negotiable bonds which might pass into the hands of bona fide holders for value, and become binding, whether the road was or not so located or constructed. The clause requiring such provisions to be made as are necessary and proper for the prompt payment of the appropriation has reference only to the collection and application of taxes levied to meet the appropriation. For these reasons the court erred in holding that the validity of the bonds was sustained by the act of March 7, 1867.
2. The suggestion that the bonds were authorized by the act of February 26, 1869, (3 Priv. Laws Ill. 1869, p. 355,) entitled 'An act to legalize certain aids heretofore voted and granted to aid in the construction of the Chicago, Danville & Vincennes Railroad,' is without force. That act, by its very terms, has reference only to aids voted and granted prior to its passage. The aid in the present case was voted subsequently.
