delivered the opinion of the court.
The bonds in question contain the same recitals as those of Harter Township in the same county, the validity of which was determined in
Harter
v.
Hernochan,
There is, however, one question of some importance which did not then arise. It appeared in that case that the election held under the act of Feb. 25, 1867, on Nov. 10, 1868, — at which the township voted a donation to be raised by special tax, payable in three equal annual instalments, — was supplemented by another, held, under the authority of the amendatory act, on the twentieth day of May, 1870, at which Harter Township directed bonds to be issued in payment of its donation previously voted.. In ■ the present case, while the election at which the township of Louisville voted a similar donation, to be raised by like special tax, was also held on the 10th of November, 1868, the one at which the township voted to issue bonds in payment of such donation was not held until the 2d of July, 1870. On the day last named the people of Illinois voted in favor of the adoption of a new constitution. The second of the additional sections, which is
*471
entitled “ Municipal subscriptions to railroads or private corporations,” was separately submitted, and is in these words : “ No county, city, town, township, or other municipality shall ever become a subscriber to the capital stock of any railroad or private corporation, or make donation to or loan its credit in aid of any such corporation:
Provided, however,
that the adoption of this article shall not be construed as affecting the right of any such municipality to make such subscriptions where the same have been authorized,- under existing laws, by a vote of the people of such municipalities prior to such adoption.” In
Town of Concord
v.
Portsmouth Savings Bank
(92 U. S.. 625), we held that donations by counties or other municipalities in Illinois to railroad companies could not lawfully be made after July 2, 1870, though authorized by a statute enacted and a popular vote cast before the adoption of the Constitution. This ruling was made in ignorance of the fact, to which our attention was .not at the time called, that the Supreme Court of Illinois had, in an unreported case, decided "that the intention of the framers of the Constitution was- not to prohibit donations authorized under pre-existing laws by a vote of the people prior to the adoption, of that instrument, but to place subscriptions and donations on the same footing. Consequently, in
Fairfield
v.
County of Gallatin
(
We have seen that the people of Louisville Township did, prior to the adoption of the Constitution of 1870, vote in aid of this railroad enterprise a donation to be-raised by special tax, for a limited period. That donation was, beyond question, unaffected by the constitutional provision prohibiting municipal aid to railroads or private corporations. When that instrument was adopted the township had ample authority, conferred by the vote of the people, to' raise by special tax a specific amount to be donated for the purpose indicated.
*472 But the argument, on behalf of the plaintiff in error, pro-' ceeds upon these grounds : that this is not a suit to enforce the levy of a special tax in payment of the donation voted Nov. 10, 1868, but a suit on the bonds voted on the second day of- July,* 1870; that by the settled course of decisions in the Supreme .Court of Illinois the township officers could not legally issue bonds'in payment of a donation, previously voted to be raised by special tax, without the consent of the people expressed at an election duly called and held for the purpose of determining that question; that no election could confer authority to issue bonds unless held before the section of the Constitution which we have mentioned took effect-; that the section having been adopted by popular .vote on the 2d of July, 1870, was in operation • from the first moment of that day; and that, consequently, the township election held on the . same day was, in view of the constitutional inhibition, unavailing to confer authority to substitute a donation of interest-bearing bonds maturing many years after date, for a donation to be satisfied by a special annual'tax for three years. In other words, that a popular vote authorizing an issue of bonds, in order to escape that inhibition, must have been cast prior to the day on which the Constitution was adopted..
Passing by, as unnecessary fot determination, the propositions embodied in the first branch of' this argument, and conceding them for the purposes of this ease to be correct, we proceed to inquire as to the time when the Constitution of 1870, including that section, became the fundamental law* of the State, and what effect it had on the township election held on the 2d of July of that year.
At what precise hour. on that day the Constitution was adopted by popular vote cannot be stated. But we know that it could not have occurred before sunset, since the schedule, providing for the submission of the Constitution to the popular vote, expressly required the polls to be kept open for the reception of ballots until that hour. Nor are we able to ascertain, from the record, the exact moment when the township voted in favor of the issue of these bonds. The town meeting to.determine whether they should be issued, in lieu of a special tax, was to be held at nine o’clock in the, forenoon; it whs so *473 held, and only fifty-four votes were east, of which fifty-two were, in favor of the issue. The presumption may, therefore,be fairly indulged that the township had, in fact, voted for issuing bonds before the close of the general election, on the same day at which the people of the State voted on the adoption of the particular sections of the Constitution, separately submitted, which relates to. municipal subscriptions to railroads and private corporations. >
The schedule provided that if a majority of the votes polled were for the Constitution, so much of it as was not separately submitted should be the supreme law of the State on and after-Aug. 8,1870. The Supreme Court of Illinois, in
Scholl v. Bowman
(
The next case was' Richards v. Donagho, 66 id, 73. It related to a proposed municipal subscription in pursuance of an election called July 12, 1870, and held Aug. 2, 1870. The court adhered to the decision in Schall v. Bowman. The remaining case to which our attention has been called is Wright v. Bishop, *474 88 id. 302. There the vote for an issue of bonds was given at an election held on the second day of August, 1870. The court, referring to the preceding cases, said: “This, we have held, was too late. The clause in the Constitution, containing the prohibition against municipal subscriptions or donations in aid of railroad companies and other private corporations, took effect on the second day of July, 1870; and all such subscriptions or donations, not authorized by a vote of the municipality, prior to that time, are void.”
It is thus seen that the cases related to an election held in the month of Augus't, 1870. Neither of them involved the validity of a subscription or a donation made in pursuance of an election held on the 2d of July, 1870; and, consequently, that learned tribunal has not indicated its opinion as to whether the constitutional inhibition forbade a municipal subscription or donation, in pursuance of an election held on the very day of the adoption of the Constitution. It is true that the court, in Wright v. Bishop, after saying that the provisions in question “took effect on the 2d of July, 1870,” remarked that “ all such subscriptions or donations, not authorized by a vote of the municipality, prior to that time, are void.” But that language must be interpreted with reference to the facts of the particular case presented for judicial determination. It is not clear that the phrase, “ prior to that time,” was intended to refer to the day on which the constitutional provision took effect, as distinguished from the precise moment of its adoption by the popular vote. The case involved no such question.
We are justified in so interpreting the decision in Wright v. Bishop by what was said in Grosvenor v. Magill (37 id. 239), the doctrines of which have not, so far as we are able to find, been modified by any subsequent ruling of that court. The question involved was whether the law regards fractions of a day. The court, speaking by Mr. Justice Lawrence, said : “ It is true that for many purposes the law knows no division of a day; but whenever it becomes important to the ends of justice, or in order to decide upon conflicting interests, the law will look into fractions of a day, as readily as into the fractions of any other unit of time. 2 Bl. Com. 140, notes. . The rule is purely *475 one of convenience, which must give way whenever the rights of parties require it. There is no indivisible unity about a day which forbids us, in legal proceedings, to consider its component hours, any more than about a month, which restrains us from regarding its constituent days. The law is not made of such unreasonable and arbitrary rules.”
The views expressed in the last case are consistent with sound reason and public policy. They accord with our own judgment, and are in line with the settled course of decisions in other courts.
In
Arnold
v.
United States
(
Mr. Justice Story has discussed this question with fulness in
In the Matter of Joseph Richardson,
It appeared that the petition was filed about noon, while the repealing act was not, in fact, approved by the’ President-until late in the evening of the same day, several hours after the *476 filing of tlio petition. It was ruled, upon the ease presented; that the act of Congress should be held to have taken effect only from the act of approval by the President, and not by relation from the commencement of the day on which such approval was given. After a review of the English decisions, the court said : “ So that we see that there is no ground of authority, and, certainly, there is no reason to’ assert that any such general rule prevails, as that the law does not allow of fractions of a day. On the contrary, common sense and common justice equally sustain the propriety of allowing fractions of a day, whenever it will promote the pui-poses of substantial justice.”
In
Lapeyre
v.
United States
(
In
United States
v.
Norton
(
*477 At the same term Burgess v. Salmon (id. 381) was decided. An act of Congress increased the tax on tobacco.from twenty to twenty-four cents per pound, but contained a proviso that the increased tax should not apply to tobacco “ on which the tax under existing laws shall.have been paid when this [that] act takes effect.” It was approved on the afternoon of March -3, 1875, while the tobacco of Salmon was stamped, sold, and removed for consumption or use from the place of manufacture in the forenoon of the same day. It was ruled that the court could inquire as to the time of the day when.the President approved the. act,- and that “ the time. of such approval points out the earliest possible moment at which it could become a law, or, in the words of the act of March 3, 1875, at which it could take effect.” It was, consequently, adjudged that the tobacco was not subject to the. increased tax imposed by a statute which was not in fact approved, and did not take effect, until after the removal, on the same day, of the tobacco. In thát case the parties agreed as to the respective hours of the day when the tobacco was, in fact, stamped and removed, and when the act was approved by the President. But such an agreement could not have authorized an inquiry into .fractions of a day, unless such inquiry were permissible by the established rules of law.
The cases in the State courts bearing upon this question, and taking substantially the same view, are numerous. We refer to only two of them. In
Kennedy
v.
Palmer
(
The other case is
People
v.
Clark,
There are decisions in the English courts to the same effect.' In Roe d. Wrangham v. Hersey (3 Wils. 274), the court characterized,’ as a mere fiction of law, the general proposition that there were no fractions of a day; that, “by fiction of law, the whole time of the assizes and the whole session of Parliament may be, and sometimes are, considered as one day; yet the matter of fact shall overturn the fiction in order to do justice between the parties.” Fietio eedit veritati; fictio juris non est ubi veritas. In Combe v. Pitt (3 Burr. 1423, 1434), Lord Mansfield expressed similar views.. He said: “ But though the law does not, in general, allow of the fraction of a day, yet it admits it in cases where it is necessary to distinguish. And I do not see why the very hour of the day may not be so too, when> it is necessary and can be done ; for it is1not like a mathematical point, which cannot be divided.”
In view of the authorities it cannot be doubted that the courts may, when substantial justice requires it, ascertain the precise hour when a statute took effect by the approval of the executive. But it may be argued that the rule does not apply where the inquiry is. as to the time when constitutional provisions became operative by popular vote; that a popular vote, given at an election covering many hours of the' same day, should be deemed one indivisible act, effectual, by rela *479 tion, from the moment the electors entered upon the performance of that act, to wit, from the opening of the polls. But Ave are of opinion that no such distinction can be maintained. In determining when a statute took effect no account is taken of the time it received the sanction 'of the two branches of the legislative department, Avhich sanction is as essential to the validity of the statute as the approval of the executive. We look to the final act of approval by the executive to find when the statute took effect, and, Avlien necessary, inquire as to the hour of the day Avhen that approval Avas, in fact, given. So, in ascertaining' when a constitutional provision Avas adopted, we perceive no sound reason why the courts may not, in proper cases, inquire as to the hour when such approval became effectual, to wit, as to the time when, by the closing of the polls, the people had adopted such provision. In this case all difficulty is removed by the fact, made certain by the schedule to the Constitution requiring the polls to be kept open until a certain hour of the day of election. That fact should not be disregarded or ignored in ascertaining when the constitutional" provision was adopted, especially since it expressly saved the obligations and rights of the municipalities which had, before its adoption, under the authority of pre-existing laAVS, voted subscriptions or ddnations.
We are of opinion that, Avithin the fair meaning of the State Constitution, the township election of the 2d of July, 1870, Avas held prior to the adoption of the section forbidding municipal subscriptions or donations in aid of railroad corporations, _ and under the authority of valid enactments in force Avhen such election Avas held. The bonds, the coupons of which are in suit, Avere, consequently, unaffected by the prohibitions of the State Constitution. All other material objections to their validity have been considered and overruled in Harter v. Hernoehan.
Judgment affirmed.