Stephen Johnson Field

“ Of the power of the State to direct a restitution to tax-payers of a county, or other municipal corporation, of property exacted from them by taxation, into whatever form the property may be changed, so long as it remains in possession of the municipality, we have no doubt. The exercise of the power infringes upon no provision of the Federal Constitution. ”

“ But property, derived by them from other sources, is often held, by the terms of its grant, for special uses, from which it cannot be diverted by the legislature. In such cases, the property is protected by all the guards against legislative interference possessed by individuals and private corporations for their property. And there would seem to be reasons equally cogent, in abstract justice, against a diversion by the legislature from the purposes of a municipality of property raised for its use by taxation from its inhabitants. ”

“ The commissioners took the stock, not to hold as an investment which was to yield an annual revenue to the county, but to aid in the construction of a work in which the public were interested,-a railroad through the county. As justly observed by counsel, the management of the affairs of a railroad company is no part of the proper business of a county ”