warrant could be paid; that said sum could not not be paid out of the annual tax; that said so called warrant created, or would create, an indebtedness that Eddy County could not possibly meet for more than one year from its date.” The contract was made in October, 1891, and it was admitted upon the hearing that the queston of making such expenditure was never submitted to a vote of the people of such county. It is practically conceded that under these facts the contract is void, under § 607, Comp. Laws, unless the illegal action of the board of county commissioners in making this contract was subsequently ratified. But the court had no evidence of ratification before it. It is true that it is stated in the petition and affidavit of relator that the board of county commissioners accepted the work. But this does not constitute ratification. What the board could not do in the first instance, it could not thereafter make valid by ratification. The power must come from a higher source,—the vote of the people. It is not a case where there has been some irregularity in the exercise of a power vested in the board. It isa usurpation of power by the board which the legislature, in express terms, has withheld from the board, and vested in the people, and in the people alone. The people must ratify, because ratification presupposes power to do the act ratified. Mechem, Ag. § 121; People v. Gleason, (N.Y. App.) 25 N. E. Rep. 4; Dickinson v. City of Poughkeepsie, 75 N. Y. 65; McDonald v. Mayor, etc., 68 N. Y. 23; Capital Bank of St. Paul v. School Dist. No. 53, 1 N. Dak. 479, 48 N. W. Rep, 363. There was no evidence that the people have ever taken any action pointing towards a ratification of this unlawful agreement. Under § 3972 “a ratification can be made only in the manner that would have been necessary to confer an original authority for the act ratified,” except in cases where an oral authorization would have been sufficient. In such cases, and only in such cases, will the acceptance and retention of the benefits of the act, with notice thereof, constitute a ratification thereof. As the board of county commissioners could derive their authority to make such a contract only from a vote of the people, and not
