"During the Revolution few corporations of any sort were chartered. After the conclusion of peace the situation was materially altered. Capital had accumulated during the war. The disbanding of the army set free a labor supply, which was rapidly increased by throngs of immigrants. The day was one of bold experimentation, enthusiastic exploitation of new methods, eager exploration of new paths, confident undertaking of new enterprises. Everything conspired to bring about a considerable extension of corporate enterprise in the field of business before the end of the eighteenth century, notably after the critical period of disunion and Constitution-making has passed. Prior to 1801 over three hundred charters were granted for business corporations; 90 per cent. of them after 1789. Judged by twentieth-century standards these seem few, indeed, but neither in the colonies nor in the mother country was there precedent for such a development." 105 The Nation 512 (New York, Nov. 8, 1917), reviewing Joseph Stancliffe Davis, Essays in the Earlier History of American Corporations (2 vols., Harvard University Press, 1917).
[1617] In 1806 Chief Justice Parsons of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, without mentioning the contracts clause, declared that rights legally vested in a corporation cannot be "controuled or destroyed by a subsequent statute, unless a power be reserved to the legislature in the act of incorporation," Wales v. Stetson, 2 Mass. 143 (1806). See also Stoughton v. Baker et al., 4 Mass. 522 (1808) to like effect; cf. Locke v. Dane, 9 Mass. 360 (1812) in which it is said that the purpose of the contracts clause was to "provide against paper money and insolvent laws." Together these holdings add up to the conclusion that the reliance of the Massachusetts court was on "fundamental principles," rather than the contracts clause.
[1618] 4 Wheat., especially at 577-595 (Webster's argument); ibid. 666 (Story's opinion). See also Story's opinion for the Court in Terrett v. Taylor, 9 Cr. 43 (1815).
[1619] 4 Wheat. 518 (1819).
[1620] Ibid. 627.
[1621] 4 Wheat. at 637; see also Home of the Friendless v. Rouse, 8 Wall. 430, 437 (1869).
[1622] 4 Pet. 514 (1830).
[1623] 11 Pet. 420 (1837).
[1624] Note the various cases to which municipalities are parties.
[1625] 4 Wheat. at 629.