APPEAL from the Circuit Court for the Southern District of Illinois; the case being thus:
The Central Railroad of Illinois runs, in a large part of its course, north and south through the State just named. The great extent of its course, and the important places through which it passes or to which it leads, made it a matter very desirable to the towns in adjoining districts on the east and west of it to connect themselves by other railroads with it. Among the towns on the east, and about eighteen miles to the east of the road, was Mount Vernon, a place situate in Jefferson County, a county on the east of the road, whose course runs parallel to the whole of the western line of the county. This town, moving early in the matter, the legislature of Illinois, in February, 1855, chartered a company, called the Mount Vernon Railroad Company, whose immediate purpose was, with the aid of a mortgage on certain lands in Jefferson County, known as the 'swamp and overflowed lands,' to build a road from Mount Vernon, in Jefferson County aforesaid, to the Illinois Central. Such a road, of course, would run west through the estern part of Jefferson County, cross its western line, and connect soon after with the desired trunk of the Illinois Central.
The charter, in its seventh, eighth, and ninth sections, reads thus:
'SECTION 7. The corporation may borrow such sums of money as they deem advisable, and upon such terms as they may agree for the carrying out of the objects of this act, and may provide any security therefor they think best, by bond and mortgage, or otherwise.
'SECTION 8. The County Court of Jefferson County are hereby authorized and empowered to subscribe for such amount of the capital stock of said company as they may think proper. They may issue the bonds of the county, and provide for the payment of the principal and interest thereof, by sale or mortgage, one or both, of the swamp and overflowed lands of said county, and dispose of such bonds for money to pay, or in payment of their subscription to said stock; all and each to be upon such time, terms, and in such mode as they may deem best; or they may make such other disposition of said swamp and overflowed lands in aid of the construction and maintenance of said railroad as they deem best for the public interest of said county.
'SECTION 9. Before any disposition is made of said swamp and overflowed lands, or any subscription to the stock of said company, the said County Court may, at any regular or special term of said court, order a special election to be held for the purpose of taking the sense of the qualified voters of the county thereupon-giving such notice thereof as they may deem proper-and which shall be conducted, and returns made, canvassed, and published in all respects as other county elections. The County Court shall prepare a proposition or propositions of the mode or modes, one or more, containing a brief, clear, distinct idea of the plan or plans proposed by them for aiding in constructing of said road; which said proposition shall be printed at large as an election ticket, and the voters may express their will on said proposition by writing 'Yea' and 'Nay' on a separate ticket. The proposition or plan having the highest number of votes shall be adopted by the County Court.'
But in addition to the sections thus quoted followed another and very important one in these words:
'SECTION 10. Any county through which said road may run, and every county through which any other railroad may run with which this road may be joined, connected, or intersected, may, and are hereby authorized and empowered to aid in the construction of the same, or of such other road with which it may so connect; and for this purpose the provisions of the seventh, eighth, and ninth sections of this act shall extend, include, and be applicable to every such county, and every such railroad.'
So far as to Jefferson County; and this 10th section.
On the east again of Jefferson County, and, like it, having 'swamp and overflowed lands,' and like it interested in gaining a connection with the great trunk of the Illinois Central, was Wayne County; the west line of this county being about eleven miles east of the town of Mount Vernon.