A PRACTICAL TREATISE ON THE LAW OF MUNICIPAL BONDS. VOL. I. BY WILLIAM N. COLER, NEW YORK CITY: LIBRARY OF THE LELAND STANFORD JR. UNIVERSITY. A28957 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by + WILLIAM N. COLER, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. PREFACE. WITH the progress of civilization, the Municipal WITH Bond has grown to be a security of great importance. Substantially new to the Common Law, it is a creature called into existence by the enterprise, courage, and wisdom of the American people. It is the offspring of the same heroic principle that has within a century enlarged the borders of our civilization with a rapidity unknown to history, and conferred upon our people every public blessing which the genius of an enlightened age has produced. As a means to the enjoyment of these blessings, it has become a necessary incident of American civilization. Like every instrument of good, in the hands of designing men, it has been used to effect evil; but when the grand results which it has so materially aided in securing are considered, the injuries that have been endured become too insignificant to be entitled to the slightest weight. It has taken its place as one of the leading instrumentalities of our system of local government, and as such is destined, beyond peradventure, to endure as long as credit is necessary to the development of our resources or the consummation of public improvements. The Municipal Bond is chiefly useful as a practical means by which the payor may obtain credit. In this consists its essential value to the locality that is pledged to its payment. The credit being The credit being secured, and by means of the credit the public work in aid of which it was issued being completed, the enhancement of values makes good the outlay, and the people of the locality own the desired work as so much unincumbered profit. The manifest importance of the law of Municipal Bonds is too well recognized to require comment. It is a subject in which the inhabitants of every section of the United States are interested as well as large numbers of foreign capitalists who will at no distant period come to consider the class of obligations to which it relates the safest and best in the American market. The plan of the present volumes has been adopted after careful examination, and, while open to criticism in some respects, is thought to possess marked advantages. The object has been to present a treatise that would be practically valuable to the banker as well as the lawyer — a book that, while not strictly a manual, would so far partake of the nature of such a work as to afford a ready understanding no less of the law generally, than of the constructions and precedents that govern every locality. To effect this, the arrangement by States seemed to be the most natural, and at the same time to ensure convenience and completeness. It will be found that there is a necessary repetition of principles, and a similarity between many of the opinions; but the presentation of all that appear was thought to be necessary to carry out the pur |