work: "It is, we think, a sound principle, that when a government becomes a partner in a trading company, it divests itself, so far as concerns the transactions of the company, of its sovereign character, and takes that of a private citizen. Instead of communicating to the company its privileges and its prerogatives, it descends to a level with those with whom it associates itself, and takes the character which belongs to its associates, and to the business which it transacts. * * * As a member of a corporation, a government never exercises its sovereignty. It acts merely as a corporator, and exercises no other powers in the management of the affairs of the corporation than are expressly given by the incorporation act. The government of the Union held shares in the old Bank of the United States; but the privileges of the government were not imparted by that circumstance to the bank." If there exists any authority in the general government to create a corporation for any purpose, it is in relation to the finances of the country. The necessity of a fiscal agent of some kind would seem to warrant the creation of a banking corporation. But, if the power is conceded, it does not follow that the people should be taxed to provide a bounty, payable semi-annually, to the private companies who are engaged in banking, and who alone receive the profits arising from the business. Yet the act of congress creating the banks provides for the payment of semi-annual interest on the capital invested; and this interest is collected from the people. All railroad corporations, created by act of congress, are absolutely private corporations. The insertion in the charter of the words--"to secure the more safe and speedy transportation of the mails, troops, munitions of war, and government supplies"--found in all of these charters, does not change the character of the corporations. The grants are made to private parties; the roads are under their control; they receive aid from the general government, but in their own names own and control the roads, and can, at any time, dispose of the roads and franchises, and the general government has no power to prevent any action the companies may choose to adopt so long as they regard the provisions of their charters. No statesman or jurist of our country has at any time, until within the last few years, claimed that congress could create corporations for private purposes; on the contrary, in all of the earlier decisions of the federal courts, it was uniformly conceded that congress did not possess the power to create such corporations. Chancellor Kent, Chief Justice Marshall, and other eminent writers, are all agreed that, under the constitution, congress cannot create a private corporation. If congress had no constitutional right to create railroad corporations, how can it possess the power to tax the people to pay their debts? The people are now paying at least $8,000,000 per annum in shape of taxes