Horace Gray

“ The constitution of South Carolina of 1868 authorized the legislature to vest the corporate authorities of townships or other municipal corporations with power to assess and collect taxes 'for corporate purposes.' By the act of 1870, townships were deprived of the corporate powers with which they had been vested by the legislature immediately after the adoption of the constitution, but were still defined by their names and boundaries. ”

“ On November 30, 1888, an action by taxpayers in Township Ninety-Six to recover back taxes paid by them, under protest, to meet the interest on bonds issued by the county commissioners in behalf of the township under the acts of 1882 and 1885, was sustained by the supreme court of South Carolina, by concurring opinions of Chief Justice Simpson and Justice McIver, upon the ground that by the act of 1870, repealing the act of 1868, townships were left as mere territorial divisions, with no corporate powers, privileges, or purposes ”

“ By the act of September 26, 1868, entitled 'An act to organize townships, and to define their powers and privileges,' the inhabitants of every township were declared to be a body politic and corporate, with power to sue and be sued, to hold and convey real and personal estate, to make contracts, to hold meetings, to elect town officers, to vote money for schools, burial grounds, highways, and bridges, and to lay taxes for the purpose of keeping highways and bridges in repair ”

“ There not being shown to have been a single decision of the state court against the constitutionality of the act of 1885 before the plaintiff purchased his bonds, nor any settled course of decision upon the subject, even since his purchase, the question of the validity of these bonds must be determined by this court according to its own view of the law of South Carolina. ”

“ Section 1: 'The township bonds hereto-fore issued by county commissioners as the corporate agents of any township in this state, in aid of any railroad, by vote of the inhabitants of said township, are hereby declared to be debts of said township respectively having authorized the issue of the same. ”