not to do a particular thing.' Mr. Justice STORY is still more explicit: "A contract is a deliberate agreement between competent parties upon a legal consideration to do to abstain from doing some act.” 2 478. The question involved in the clause of the constitution already quoted, namely, whether a charter is or is not a contract, was discussed, and decided in the affirmative, in the Dartmouth College case. The discussion was so thorough and the decision so able, and accordant with the letter and purpose of the constitution, that the correctness of its deductions have not been authoritatively disputed. The only controversy admissible pertains to the application of the doctrine therein laid down. No decision more eminently just was ever rendered; no decision was ever so persistently misrepresented and pervented. § 479. In the year 1769 Dartmouth College was created by charter. It grew out of an attempt to educate the Indians. John Eliot, the great apostle of modern missions, the illustrious founder of a family preeminently honorable in the annals of the country, had undertaken the civilization of the Indians, and Eleazor Wheelock supplemented Eliot by establishing a school for their training. It was first started at Lebanon, Connecticut. It was afterwards thought best to remove it to what is now Hanover, New Hampshire, where it received a land grant subsidy of 44,000 acres. A liberal fund was raised in England for the institution. Lord Dartmouth gave more than any one else, and after him the college, as it now became, was named. A board of trustees was organized in accord 1 2 Blackstone, 446; 2 Kent, 449. 2 Story Contr. sec. 1. ance with the provisions of the charter, with Lord Dartmouth president of the board. 480. Nothing worthy of note in this connection occurred in the history of the college until 1815. At that time the institution was presided over by John Wheelock, son and immediate successor of the first president. His administration gave some dissatisfaction, and the trustees removed him. The year following the legislature of New Hampshire took part in the controversy by passing statutes legislating the old board of trustees out of office, and creating a new corporation. Among other things this legislation made the governors of New Hampshire and of Vermont exofficio members of the board of management. In addition to this entire change in the control of the institution its name was changed from Dartmouth College to Dartmouth University. Some other alterations hardly less fundamental were made. 481. The immediate occasion of litigation was the demand by the new board of trustees upon the old board for the records of the college. There was no issue of fact raised. The controversy was over the validity of the state legislation. The old board of trustees denied the right of the state government to enact such legislation, basing the denial upon the clause of the constitution of the United States which has been quoted. The state courts sustained the validity of the legislation. The case reached its final adjudication in the supreme court of the United States, to which tribunal it was appealed on the strength of another clause of the constitution, which gives the federal judiciary jurisdiction over all cases in law and equity arising under the constitution of the United States. 1 § 482. Daniel Webster, for the old board, made the great argument of the case. With him were associated as counsel Jeremiah Smith and Jeremiah Mason. Opposed to them were William Wirt, William Pinkney and John Holmes. Messrs. Wirt and Pinkney were eminent lawyers. The names of both of them appear in the list of the attorney generals of the United States. Chief Justice MARSHALL was then on the bench, and Mr. Justice STORY one of the associate justices at the time. $483. The legal points of the Dartmouth college case have been frequently restated by the courts. The latest statement thereof by the supreme court of the United States was in the case of Miller v. The State of Pennsylvania. The decision in this case has been rendered, but not officially published. That summary of the law as established in this important case is as follows, viz.: "Much consideration was given to the question under consideration in the case of Dartmouth College v. Woodward, 4 Wheat. 175, in which the right of the state was denied to amend the charter granted to the college by the crown before the revolution, and to modify and restrict the same without the consent of the trustees under the charter. Four propositions were decided by the court in that case, the opinion being given by the chief justice: 1. That the charter was a contract within the meaning of that clause of the constitution which ordains that no state shall pass any law impairing the obligation of contracts. 2. That the charter was not dissolved by the 1 United States Constitution, art. iii, sec. 2. revolution. 3. That the acts of the state legislature. altering the charter in a material respect, without the consent of the corporation, was an act impairing the obligation of the charter, and was unconstitutional and void. 4. That the college, under its charter, was a private and not a public corporation." § 484. This latest statement has the merit of brevity, without the omission of a single point, and the principles therein laid down are now axioms, and need no argumentation. The reasoning of the court in that case is regarded as one of the masterpieces of judicial literature. § 485. No legislation, in Illinois, at least none relating to railroads, is at all analogous to the New Hampshire legislation in regard to Dartmouth college. It is easy to suppose an analogous case. the 8486. There is one railroad in the state Illinois Central-which was built in part by a land subsidy and largely by English capital, thus resembling Darmouth college. Supposing the general assembly should abolish the existing board of directors; create a new one, of which the governors of Illinois and of Iowa should be ex officio members; change the name to Prairie Central railroad company; compel the construction of a double track from Chicago and Dunleith to Cairo. That would be "impairing the obligations of contracts," within the contemplation of the constitution of the United States as defined and applied by the court in the Dartmouth college case. Again: had the legislature of New Hampshire passed a general law for the regulation of colleges, to prevent the abuse of rights and privileges enjoyed under their charters, said legislation being simply declaratory of common law principles as applied to public institutions of learning, that would have been legislation analogous to Illinois railway law, as found in the constitution and statute books of the state. II. COMMERCE BETWEEN STATES BY RAIL. § 487. Language of the constitution. 488. Post roads; congress. 489. Immediate origin of the federal constitution. 490. Local commerce; bridges. 491. Police power of the state. 492. The question raised by Illinois legislation. 493. Railway and warehouse board; circular to the public. 494. The subject stated. 495. The questions arising therefrom. 496. Statute applies to through freight 497. Reasonable reduction allowable. 498. Different railroads on line. 499. One thousand mile tickets. 500. Reading Co. v. Pennsylvania. 501. Latest applicable United States Supreme court decision. 502. National sovereignty asserted. 503. Its limitations herein defined. $487. One other feature of the national constitution demands consideration, namely, that relating to the means of commercial intercourse. It is contained in two clauses. The first reads: "The congress shall have power to regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states and with the Indian tribes."1 The other clause referred to reads: "The congress shall have power to establish post offices and post roads."2 'United States Constitution, art. i, sec. 8, clause 3. • Ibid. clause 7. |