[1609] Ogden v. Saunders, 12 Wheat. 213, 338 (1827).
[1610] 6 Cr. 87 (1810).
[1611] In Ware v. Hylton, 3 Dall. 199 (1797) the Court had earlier set aside an act of Virginia as being in conflict with the Treaty of Peace, of 1783, with Great Britain.
[1612] As given by Professor Wright in his treatise, The Contract Clause of the Constitution, 22. Professor Wright dates Hamilton's pamphlet, 1796.
[1613] 6 Cr. 87, 139 (1810). Justice Johnson, in his concurring opinion, relied exclusively on general principles. "I do not hesitate to declare, that a State does not possess the power of revoking its own grants. But I do it, on a general principle, on the reason and nature of things; a principle which will impose laws even on the Deity." Ibid. 143. See also his words in Satterlee v. Matthewson, 2 Pet. 380, 686 (1829); and those of the North Carolina Supreme Court in Barnes v. Barnes, 8 Jones L. 53 (N.C.) 366 (1861), quoted in Thomas Henry Calvert. The Constitution and the Courts, I, 948 (Northport, L.I., 1924). In both these opinions it is asseverated that the contracts clause has been made to do the work of "fundamental principles."
[1614] 7 Cr. 164 (1812). The exemption from taxation which was involved in this case was held in 1886 to have lapsed through the acquiescence for sixty years of the owners of the lands in the imposition of taxes upon these. Given v. Wright, 117 U.S. 648 (1886).
[1615] Dartmouth College v. Woodward, 4 Wheat. 518 (1819).
[1616] It was not until well along in the eighteenth century that the first American business corporation was created: "This was the New London Society United for Trade and Commerce, which was chartered in Connecticut in 1732. It had, however, an early demise. Following this was a second Connecticut charter, namely, for building 'Union Wharf,' on 'Long Wharf,' at New Haven. A similar company, 'The Proprietors of Boston Pier,' or 'The Long Wharf in the Town of Boston in New England,' was chartered by the Massachusetts General Court in 1772. In 1768 the Pennsylvania Assembly incorporated 'The Philadelphia Contributionship for the Insuring of Houses from Loss by Fire.' Alone of the colonial business corporations it has had a continuous existence to the present day.
"Apparently the only other business corporations of the colonies were companies for supplying water. One was incorporated in Massachusetts in 1652, and three in Rhode Island in 1772 and 1773. Alongside of these corporations, and, indeed, preceding them, were a large number of unincorporated associations, partnerships, societies, groups of 'undertakers,' 'companies,' formed for a great variety of business purposes. In the eye of the law all of them were probably mere partnerships or tenancies in common. Whaling and fishing companies, so-called, were numerous. There were a number of mining companies, chiefly for producing iron or copper. There were some manufacturing companies, but they were not numerous. Banking institutions were represented notably by the 'Bank of Credit Lumbard,' promoted in Boston by John Blackwell and authorized by the General Court in 1686, and by the 'Land Bank or Manufacturing Scheme' in the same colony in 1739-41.
"In addition to these there were a few insurance companies, a number of companies formed for the Indian trade, numerous land companies, large and small, a number of associations for erecting bridges, building or repairing roads, and improving navigation of small streams or rivers. Besides these there were a few colonial corporations not easily classed, such as libraries, chambers of commerce, etc.