Under a constitutional and representative form of government the determination of what constitutes a public purpose in respect to taxation rests primarily in the legislative department of such government; but legislative determination on this subject is not absolutely conclusive, for the question ultimately is one of law. If this was not so, a Legislature would possess unlimited power to make anything lawful which it might call taxation, which would be equivalent to an unlimited power to plunder the citizen.
In every case in which the Legislature shall have clearly exceeded its authority in this regard, and levied a tax for a purpose not public, it is competent for any one, who in person or properly is affected by the tax, to appeal to the courts for protection.—Cooley, Law of Taxation, p. 55.
Brief references to certain other court cases, in which the validity of this claim that certain taxes, or acts involving the imposition of taxes, were for public purposes, was the question at issue, will also help to an understanding of the subject.
In 1872 the city of Boston was authorized by the Legislature of Massachusetts to issue bonds to the amount of $20,000,000, the proceeds to be loaned to persons whose property had been destroyed by a recent great fire. The Supreme Court of Massachusetts held that, although such "a promotion of the interests of individuals might result incidentally in the advancement of the public welfare," the measure was, "in its essential character, a private and not a public object," and therefore unconstitutional. (Lowell vs. Boston, 111 Mass.)
A similar statute enacted by the Legislature of South Carolina in aid of sufferers by a fire in Charleston was also declared by the Supreme Court of that State as unconstitutional. (Feldman & Co. vs. City of Charleston, S. C, 57.)
In 1870 the town of Jay, in Maine, voted to loan $10,000 to a firm of manufacturers, on condition that they would move their works to the town and establish and maintain them there for ten years. This vote, although ratified by an act of the Legislature, the Supreme Court of the State declared void. (Allen vs. Jay, 60 Maine, 124.)
In connection with this case the Legislature of the State of Maine officially put the following question to the justices of its Supreme Court: "Has the Legislature authority under the Constitution to pass laws enabling towns by gifts of money to assist individuals or corporations to establish or carry on manufacturing of various kinds within or without the limits of said towns?" The question was answered in the negative. The court used the following language: "There is nothing of a public nature any
