after making the foregoing statement of the case, delivered the opinion of the court.
The plaintiffs in error seek a reversal of. the judgment of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, which affirmed a decree of a lower court, directing the consolidation of the сities of Pittsburgh and Allegheny. This decree was entered by.authority of an act of the General Assembly of that State, after proceedings taken in conformity with its requirements. The act authorized the consolidation of two cities, situated with reference to each other as Pittsburgh and Allegheny are, if upon an election the majority of the votes cast in the territory comprised within the limits of both cities favor the consolidation, even though, as happened in this instance, a majority *175 of the votes cast in one of the cities oppose it. The procedure prescribed by the act is that after a petition filed by one of the cities in the Court of Quarter Sessions, and.a hearing upon that petition, that court, if the petition and proceedings are found t.o be regular and in conformity with the act, shall order аn election. If the election shows a majority of the votes cast to be in favor of the .consolidation, the court "shall enter a decree annexing and consolidating the lesser city . . . with the greater city.” The act provides, ip considerable detail, for the effect of the consolidation .upon the debts, obligations, claims and property of the constituent cities; grants, rights of citizenship to the citizens of those cities in the consolidated city; enacts that "except as héreiú otherwise• provided, all the property . . . аnd rights and privileges . . . vested in or belonging to either of said cities . . . prior to or at the time of the annexation, shall be vested in and owned by the consolidated or united city,” and establishes the form of government of the new city. This procedure was ■followed by the'filing of a petitiоn by the City of Pittsburgh; by an election in which the majority of all the vqtes capt were in the affirmative, although the majority of all the votes cast by the voters of Allegheny were in the negative,, and by a decree of the court uniting the' two cities.
Prior to the hearing upon the petition thе plaintiffs in error, who'were citizens, voters, owners of property and taxpayers in Allegheny, filed twenty-two .exceptions- to the petition. Thesé exceptions were disposed of adversely to the exceptants • 'by the Court of Quarter Sessions, and the action, of-that court, was successively affirmed by the Superior and Supreme courts of the State.' The case is here upon writ of error/ and the assignment of errors alleges that eight errors were committed by the Supreme Court of the State. This assignment Qf errors is founded upon the dispositiоns by the state courts of the .questions duly raised by the filing of the exceptions under the provisions of the Act of the Assembly. .
The defendants in error-moved to dismiss the case because *176 no Federal question was raised in the court below or by the assignments of error, or, if any Federal question was raised, because it was frivolous. This motion must be overruled. The plaintiffs in érror claimed that the Act of Assembly was in violation of the Constitution of the United States, and specially set up and claimed in the court below rights under several sections of that Constitution, and all their claims were denied by that court. These rights were claimed in the clеarest possible words, and the sections of the Constitution relied upon were specifically named. The questions raised by" the denial of these claims are not so unsubstantial and devoid of all color of merit that we are warranted in dismissing the case without consideration of their merits.
Some part of the assignments of error and of the arguments in support of them may be quickly disposed of by the application of well-settled principles. We have nothing to do with the policy, wisdom, justice or fairness of the act under consideration; those questions are for the consideration of those to whom the State has entrusted its legislative power, and their determination of them is not subject to review or criticism by this court. We have nothing to do with the interpretation of the constitution of the State and the conformity оf the enactment of the Assembly to that constitution; those questions are for the consideration of the courts of the State, and their decision of them is final. The Fifth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States is not restrictive of state, but only of national, action.
After thus eliminating all questions with which we have no lawful concern, there remain two questions which are within our jurisdiction. There were two claims of rights under the Constitution of the United States which were clearly made in the court below and as clearly denied. They appear in the second and fourth assignments of error. Briefly stated, the assertion in the second assignment of error is that the Act of Assembly impairs the obligation of a contract existing between the City of Allegheny and the plaintiffs in error, that the latter *177 are to be taxed only for the governmental purposes of that city, and that the, legislative attempt to subject them to the taxes of the enlarged city violates Article I, section 9, paragraph 10, of the Constitution of the United States. This assignment does not rest upon the theory that the charter of the city is a contract with the State, a proposition frequently denied by this and other courts. . It rests upon the novel proposition that there is a contract between the citizens and taxpayers of a municipal corporation and the corporation itself, that the citizens and taxpayers shall be taxed only for the uses of that corporation, and shall not be taxed for the uses of any like corporation with which it may be. consolidated. It is not said that the City of Allegheny expressly made any such extraordinary contract, but only that the contract, arises out of the relation of the parties to each other. It is difficult to deal with a proposition of this kind except by saying that it is not true. No authority or reason in support of it has been offered to us, and it is utterly inconsistent with the nature of municipal corporations, the purpоses for which they are created, and the relation they bear to those who dwell and own property within their limits. This assignment of error is overruled.
Briefly stated, the assertion in the fourth assignment of error is that the Act of Assembly deprives the plaintiffs in error of their property without due рrocess of law, by subjecting it to the burden of the additional taxation which would result from the consolidation. The manner in which the right of due process of law has been violated, as set forth in the first assignment of error and insisted upon in argument, is that the method of voting on the consolidаtion prescribed in the act has permitted the voters of the larger city to overpower the voters of the smaller city, and compel the union without their consent and against their protest. The precise question thus presented has not been determined by this court. It is imрortant, and, as we have said, not so devoid of merit as to be denied consideration, although its solution by principles long settled and constantly acted upon is not difficult. This court
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has many times had occasion to consider and decide the nature of municipal corporations, their-rights and duties, and the rights of their citizens and creditors. Maryland v.
Balt. & Ohio Railroad,
Applying these principles to the case at bar, it follows irresistibly that this assignment of error, só far as it relates to the citizens who are plaintiffs in error, must be overruled.
It will be observed that , in describing the absolute power of the State over the property of municipal corporations^we have not extended it beyond the property held and used for governmental purposes. Such corporations are sometimes authorized to hold and do hold property for the same purposes that property is held by private corporations or individuals. The distinction between property owned by municipal. corporations in' their public and governmental capacity and that owned by them in their private capacity, though difficult to define, has been approved by ihany of the state courts (1 Dillon, Municipal Corporations*' 4th -ed., sections 66 to 66a, inclusive, and cases cited in note to 48 L. R. A. 465), and it has been held that as to the latter class of property the legislature is not 'omnipotent: If-the distinction is recognized it suggests the question whether property of a municipal corporation owned in its private and proprietary capacity may be taken from it against its will and without compensation. Mr. Dillon
*180
says truly that the question has never arisen directly for adjudication in this court. But it and the distinction upon which it is based has several (times been noticed.
Commissioners
v.
Lucas,
The judgment is
Affirmed,