But when a county, a city, town, or township, organized for the convenience of the people, and to more effectually protect their rights, attempts to become a stockholder in a railroad corporation, it attempts the exercise of a power it does not and cannot possess under the constitution. Municipal corporations were not created for the purposes of private speculation or private gain, but for purely and strictly government purposes. No power is granted (nor can it be implied) to county judges, commissioners, or supervisors, nor to township trustees, or city boards, to take stock in railroad corporations, or to issue bonds of the municipality in payment for such stock, for the reason that such power is not necessary for the administration of these several governments, and does not come within the limit of the powers granted by the people. We know there are many decisions of courts sustaining the position that municipal corporations can become stockholders in railroads, and may issue bonds in payment therefor, and that it is within the scope of the powers vested in such corporations to levy taxes for the payment of the bonds so issued; but we have yet to see a decision that is sustained by any provision of the constitution. Many of these decisions admit that the right to subscribe stock is not contained in the constitution, and cannot be justified on constitutional grounds. Of these decisions we shall speak hereafter, and we leave them for the present. We insist that there is no authority in the constitutions, state or national, under which any department of any of the governments can become stockholders in a railroad corporation; nor is the right to take such stock in accordance with the genius or spirit of republican government. The distinction that exists between cities and towns acting under charters, and counties, townships, school and road districts, is marked, and should be kept in mind in considering the nature of the powers possessed by each. County, township, school, and road district organizations are necessary in the administration of the laws of the state. They are at most but _quasi_ corporations; all their powers are derived from, and executed under, the general statutes of the state. They have no special grants or privileges, but are the chosen means for executing state laws. In the distribution of the powers and duties vested in and imposed upon the state governments, the duties of administering the local affairs of the counties, townships, and districts, are delegated to, and imposed upon, these _quasi_ corporations respectively. They can only exercise such powers as are necessary for the accomplishment of the objects of their creation. Their acts are the acts of the state government as applied to their respective localities. They are not clothed with any extraordinary power; nor can the state government delegate to them a power it does not itself possess. When the constitution of a state (as in the case of Iowa and