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CHAPTER XV.

Of the Incorporation of Towns, Villages, &c., and their Corporate Powers.

§ 1. THE necessity of dividing a state into towns and counties, has already been mentioned. The people, in the exercise of political power, can act only in a collective capacity. But as the freemen of a whole state, or even of a county, cannot be collected in a single assembly, they meet in the several towns. The people at their town meetings act in the capacity of a simple democracy, which, as has been remarked, is a government in which all the citizens meet in one body to do business.

§ 2. Towns and counties are bodies corporate, or bodies politic. A body politic, or corporation, is a number of persons united and authorized by law to act under one name, and as a single person, in the transaction of business. Hence a community of people, united for purposes of government, is a body politic. Persons associated for any purpose without being incorporated by law, are not called a corporation. The object of incorporating an association by law is to give its members the power to make certain rules for their government, and to enforce these rules; and the power to sue and the capacity to be sued, and to hold and sell property as one person.

§ 3. Men unite their money or capital in trade or some other business. This is called a partnership. A corporation, though a kind of partnership, is very unlike a common business partnership. Persons united in trade can bind none by their contracts but those who have consented to go into the partnership; and when they die, the partnership ends. But when the persons who first composed a corporation are all dead, the corporation is still alive; for those who come after them have all the powers and privileges which those had who were first incorporated.

§ 4. There is another difference: No person can be brought into a partnership without his consent; whereas a law incor

porating a town, city, or village, brings all the inhabitants within its bounds into the corporation, often against the desire or the consent of many of them. Not so, however, in respect to rail-road, banking, and certain other corporations. These are formed voluntarily by the persons associated.

§ 5. To show the effect of an act of incorporation, suppose it necessary to construct side-walks, or to make some other improvements in an unincorporated village, and that a part of the inhabitants are unwilling to pay their share of the expense of such improvements. Without an act of incorporation, there is no authority to compel them to do so. Those, therefore, who desire it, petition the legislature for such act. This act authorizes the citizens of the village to establish the desired government, and to make such laws and regulations as may be essential to their convenience and safety. And in the name of the trustees or other proper officers, they may sue and be sued, hold and sell property for the use of the inhabitants, and do other things which an individual person may do. And when the present inhabitants shall have passed off, those who shall then occupy their places will constitute the same corporation.

§ 6. In some states, there is a general law under which the inhabitants of any village may form themselves into such corporation, with the necessary powers of government, without a special law of incorporation for every village whose inhabitants desire to be incorporated.

§ 7. Not only is every city, town, and county a corporation, but the state itself, whose citizens are united for government purposes, constitutes one great corporation. The latter, however, is not formed by an act of the legislature as other corporations are, but by the act of the people themselves in establishing the constitution or political law of the state.

§ 8. Besides the powers of towns as bodies corporate mentioned in preceding sections, the electors of a town have power, at their annual town meetings, to order money to be raised for the support of the poor and of common schools, for the building of bridges, and for other town purposes; to make regulations concerning fences; to fix the compensation of

town officers in certain cases; and to perform such other acts as come within the usual power of towns.

§ 9. Besides these territorial corporations, as counties, towns, cities, &c. for the purposes of government, there are incorporated companies for carrying on business of various kinds, as turnpike and rail-road companies, and companies for purposes of manufacturing, banking, insurance, &c. These several kinds of business, to be carried on extensively and successfully, usually require a larger amount of money than a single individual possesses. A number of persons therefore unite their capital, and ask for an act of incorporation granting them powers which they could not have in the capacity of an ordinary business partnership. A more particular description of some of these corporations will be given in another chapter.

EXERCISES.

§ 1. What reason is here mentioned for dividing a state into towns? What is the nature of a town government? § 2. Define body politic, or corporation. State the general objects and powers of a corporation.

§ 3, 4. In what respects do corporations and business partnerships differ? How long does a corporation continue? Can you tell how many years the town you live in has been incorporated?

§ 5. Give an example of the nature and effect of an act for the incorporation of a village.

§ 6. What benefit is gained by a general law authorizing corporations? Are there any objections to such law?.

7. What is the difference between an act incorporating a state and that of incorporating other bodies?

§ 8. What powers other than those already mentioned, do towns possess?

§ 9. What business companies are incorporated? Why are laws for their incorporation necessary ?

CHAPTER XVI.

Of County Officers; and their Powers and Duties.

§1. ALTHOUGH the names of the officers of the county administration, and the distribution of powers therein, are in some respects different in different states; the powers exercised and the duties performed, are nearly the same in all the states. Their terms of office and the mode of their appointment, are also different; being in some states appointed by the legislature or some other power, and in others elected by the people of the counties at the general election.

§ 2. Among the corporate powers of a county have been mentioned the power of suing and being sued, and of performing certain other acts. But there must be some man or body of men in whose name the powers of a county, as a body politic, are to be exercised, and all acts and proceedings by and against it are to be done. In some of the New England states, Ohio, and some others, there is a board of county commissioners, (usually three,) who exercise certain corporate powers. In New York and Michigan these powers are exercised by and in the name of the board of supervisors, which is composed of the supervisors of the several towns, there being a supervisor in each town. In other states this' body is still differently constituted. This board has power also to examine and settle the accounts against the county, and to order the raising of money to defray its expenses; to make orders or contracts in relation to the building or repairing of the court-house, jail, and other county buildings, and to perform such other duties as the laws require.

§ 3. There is also a treasurer in each county, to receive and pay out the money required to be collected and paid out in the county. There is also an auditor in some states, whose duty it is to settle and allow accounts and debts against the county, and to perform certain other duties. The duties of county auditors, in their several counties, are similar to the duties of a state auditor. In states in which there is no

county auditor, his duties are in part performed by the county treasurer, or some other county officer or officers.

§ 4. There is also a register or recorder, who provides suitable books, and records in them all deeds, mortgages, and other instruments of writing required by law to be recorded. In New York, and perhaps in some other states, the business of a register or recorder is performed by a county clerk, who is also clerk of the several courts held in the county, and who serves in the capacity of clerk or secretary to certain boards of county officers. In some states, deeds, mortgages, &c., are recorded by the town clerks of the several

towns.

§ 5. Another county officer is a sheriff, whose duty it is to attend the sittings of all courts held in the county; to execute all warrants, writs, and other processes directed to him by the proper authority; to apprehend persons charged with crime; and to take charge of the jail and the prisoners therein. It is his duty also to preserve the public peace; and he may cause all persons who break the public peace within his knowledge or view, to give bonds, with sureties, for keeping the peace, and for appearing at the next court of common pleas, and commit them to jail if they refuse to give such bonds. He performs many other duties. He has usually one or more deputies to assist him. Sheriffs are generally elected by the people.

§ 6. There are in each county one or more coroners to inquire into the cause of the death of persons who have died by violence, or suddenly, and by means unknown. When such death occurs, notice is given to the coroner, who orders a jury to be summoned, and witnesses subpoenaed, and repairs to the place of such dead person to inquire into the cause and manner of the death. Hence, such examination is called a coroner's inquest. The fees of sheriffs and coro

ners are fixed by law.

§ 7. In some states there is a county-surveyor, whose duties within his county are similar in their nature to those of a state surveyor-general.

§8. An attorney, elected, or appointed, for the purpose, attends all courts in which persons are tried in the county courts for crimes, and conducts all prosecutions for crimes

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