Statement by Mr. Justice BREWER: On August 3, , defendant in error commenced suit in the circuit court of the United States for the southern district of Illinois, on certain coupons attached to bonds issued by the city of Cairo, plaintiff in error. This judgment was entered on February 27, , and to reverse such judgment the city sued out a writ of error from this court. The party of the second part agrees that work on said road shall be commenced at Cairo within six months of the date of this contract, and that the construction of the roadbed and laying of the track from Cairo northward shall be pushed with reasonable dispatch.
The party of the second part agrees that, instead of the city of Cairo issuing bonds in payment for stock upon assessments made from time to time by said railroad company, the city of Cairo shall issue fifty thousand dollars of bonds, and deliver the same to said company in payment for stock, when the track of said road shall have been laid to the boundary line between the counties of Alexander and Pulaski, and cars shall have run thereon; and the said city shall issue fifty thousand dollars of bonds, as aforesaid, and deliver the same to said company in payment for stock, when the track of said company shall have been laid, and cars shall have run thereon, from the city of Cairo, through Pulaski county, to the boundary line between that county and Johnson county, Illinois.
The party of the first part hereby agrees to issue the fifty thousand dollars of bonds of the city of Cairo in payment for fifty thousand dollars of stock of said Cairo and Vincennes Railroad Company, and deliver said bonds to said company whenever the railroad track of said company shall be laid from Cairo to the boundary line between Alexander and Pulaski counties, and cars shall have run thereon; and also to issue fifty thousand dollars of said bonds in payment for stock as aforesaid, and deliver the same to said company whenever the railroad track of said company shall have been laid from the city of Cairo to the boundary line between Pulaski and Johnson counties, and cars shall have run thereon.
That the mayor of the city be, and is hereby, authorized and instructed to subscribe on behalf of the city of Cairo to the capital stock of the Cairo and Vincennes Railroad Company in the sum of one hundred thousand dollars, said subscription to be payable in bonds of the city, as hereinafter provided for; that the mayor, city clerk, and city comptroller be, and they are hereby, authorized and instructed to have prepared, and to sign and seal, bonds of the city to the amount of one hundred thousand dollars, to be issued to said railroad company, said bonds to be in such sums as the said company may desire, to bear interest at the rate of 8 per cent.
The committee reported that they had destroyed said bonds by burning, and asked that their action be approved. Safford, trustee, stating that he had, on the 4th day of December, delivered to the Cairo and Vincennes Railroad Company one hundred thousand dollars in bonds of the city of Cairo, from which he previously detached all the January, , coupons, subject to the order of the city; that in return he received from said railroad company a certificate for one hundred thousand dollars paid-up stock of said company; and in accordance with the provisions of ordinance , approved July 22, , he had transferred said stock to said railroad company, and received from said company therefor five thousand dollars in said bonds.
