Sec.4.  Counties and towns are bodies politic, or bodies corporate. Corporate is from the Latin, corpus, which means body.  A corporation, or body politic, is an association of persons authorized by law to transact business under a common name, and as a single person.  The laws of the state give such authority to the inhabitants of counties and towns.  The people of a town or county have power, to some extent, to manage their own internal affairs, and to make rules and regulations for their government; and they may buy, hold, and sell property, and sue and be sued, as an individual.  Similar powers are given to rail-road, banking, insurance, and other incorporated companies.  But there is in some respects a difference between these corporations and those which are created for purposes of government, as states, counties, towns, cities, and villages, which will be noticed in another place. (Chap.  XVI.)

Sec.5.  As a county possesses various corporate powers, there must be among its officers some in whose name these powers are to be exercised.  In some states there is a board of county commissioners, (usually three,) who exercise corporate powers.  In a few, these powers are exercised by and in the name of the board of supervisors, which is composed of the supervisors of the several towns in the county, of whom there is one supervisor in each town.  These boards, or such officers in other states as exercise these powers, have generally the power also to examine and settle the accounts against the county, and to make orders and contracts in relation to the building or repairing of the court-house, jail, and other county buildings; and to perform such other acts as the laws require.

Sec.6.  There is in each county a treasurer to receive and pay out the moneys required to be collected and paid out in the county.  There is also, in some states, a county auditor to examine and adjust the accounts and debts of the county, and to perform certain other duties.  The business of county treasurers and auditors in their respective counties, is of the same nature as that of state auditors and treasurers.  In states in which there is no county auditor, the duties of auditor are performed by the treasurer, and some other county officer or officers.

Sec.7.  There is also in each county a register or recorder, who records in books provided for that purpose, all deeds, mortgages, and other instruments of writing required by law to be recorded.  In New York, and perhaps in some other states, the business of a register or recorder is done by a county clerk, who is also clerk of the several courts held in the county, and of certain boards of county officers.  In some states, deeds, mortgages, and other written instruments, are recorded by the town clerks of the several towns.