[1487] 6 Cranch, 133-34.
[1488] 6 Cranch, 137-38.
[1489] Ib. 139.
[1490] 6 Cranch, 147-48.
[1491] At the risk of iteration, let it again be stated that, in Fletcher vs. Peck, Marshall declared that a grant by a State, accepted by the grantees, is a contract; that the State cannot annul this contract, because the State is governed by the National Constitution which forbids any State to pass any law "impairing the obligation of contracts"; that even if the contract clause were not in the Constitution, fundamental principles of society protect vested rights; and that the courts cannot inquire into the motives of legislators no matter how corrupt those motives may be.
[1492] For the first two decades of the National Government land frauds were general. See, for example, letter of Governor Harrison of Indiana, Jan. 19, 1802, Am. State Papers, Public Lands, i, 123; report of Michael Leib, Feb. 14, 1804, ib. 189; and letter of Amos Stoddard, Jan. 10, 1804, ib. 193-94.
[1493] Marbury vs. Madison, the Burr trial, and Fletcher vs. Peck.
[1494] Annals, 11th Cong. 2d Sess. 1881.
[1495] Harden: Life of George M. Troup, 9.
[1496] Annals, 11th Cong. 2d. Sess. 1882.