836 



UNITED STATES. 



York one hundred bales of cotton, and had re- 

 ceived a small sum on account, the balance to 

 be paid in cash on delivery. The defendant 

 tendered the amount in two legal-tender notes 

 of the series of 1878, which the defendant al- 

 leged had been redeemed at the Sub-Treasury 

 and reissued and kept in circulation, in pursu- 

 ance of an act of Congress, approved May 31, 

 1878, entitled " An act to forbid further retire- 

 ment of United States legal-tender notes." 

 He stated that he was willing and ready to pay 

 plaintiff in said notes. Judge Blatchf ord dis- 

 missed the complaint in a pro forma decision, 

 Messrs. Butler and Ohittenden the latter of 

 whom had intrusted the management of the 

 case of the plaintiff to Senator Edmunds and 

 William Allen Butler intending to appeal the 

 case to the United States Supreme Court. 



The constitutionality of the Pacific Railroad 

 act of May 7, 1878, known as the Thurman act, 

 was confirmed in the decisions of the Supremo 

 Court rendered in the cases of the Union Pa- 

 cific Railroad Company, appellant, against the 

 United States, and the Central Pacific Railroad 

 et aZ., appellants, against Albert Gallatin. The 

 point to be decided was, in the opinion of the 

 Court, " whether a statute which requires the 

 company in the management of its affairs to 

 set aside a portion of its income as a sinking 

 fund, to meet its subsidy bonds and other mort- 

 gage debts when they mature, deprives the 

 company of its property without due process 

 of law, or in any other way improperly inter- 

 feres with vested rights." In less than twenty 

 years from the present time there will become 

 due from the Union Pacific Company about 

 $80,000,000, secured by first and subsidy mort- 

 gages, besides the capital stock, representing 

 $6,000,000 more. With the exception of the 

 land-grant, little if anything except the earn- 

 ings of the company can be depended on to 

 meet these obligations when they mature. 

 These earnings the company, after paying the 

 interest on its own bonds, has been dividing 

 from time to time among its stockholders, 

 without laying by anything to meet the enor- 

 mous debt which is so soon to become due. 

 Thus the stockholders of the present time are 

 receiving in the shape of dividends that which 

 those of the future may be compelled to lose. 

 The United States occupy toward this cor- 

 poration a twofold relation that of sovereign 

 and that of creditor. In their relation of sov- 

 ereign it is their duty to see to it that the cur- 

 rent stockholders do not appropriate to their 

 own use that which in equity belongs to oth- 

 ers. A legislative regulation which does no 

 more than require them to submit to their just 

 contribution toward the payment of a bonded 

 debt can not in any sense be said to deprive 

 them of their property without due process of 

 law. The Court holds, therefore, that the legis- 

 lation complained of may be sustained as a 

 reasonable regulation of the affairs of the cor- 

 poration, and promotive of the interests of 

 the public and the corporators. It is also war- 



ranted under the authority, by way of amend- 

 ment, to change or modify the rights, privi- 

 leges, and immunities granted by the charter. 

 Chief Justice Waite delivered the opinion of 

 the Court. Associate Justices Bradley, Strong, 

 and Field dissented. Justice Field, in the course 

 of his dissenting opinion, refers to the invasion 

 of the law upon the rights of the State of Cali- 

 fornia, and says : " The Central Pacific Rail- 

 road Company is a State corporation, and in 

 creating it the State reserved the same control 

 over it which it possesses over other railroad 

 and telegraph companies created by it. It un- 

 dertakes to control and manage it in all par- 

 ticulars required for the public service, and can 

 there be any doubt in the mind of any one who 

 has the least respect for the reserved rights of 

 the State that over its own creations the State 

 has supreme authority ? I confess that I am 

 utterly at a loss to find where authority on the 

 part of the United States to interfere with the 

 State in this repect and take such control from 

 it is to be found, except in the theories of those 

 who regard the General Government as the 

 all-controlling power of the nation, to which 

 States, even in local matters, must bend." 



In view of the excessive accumulation of cases 

 on the docket of the Supreme Court, which is 

 now fully two years in arrears, and would re- 

 quire that time to clear its docket were no new 

 cases to be added, it is proposed to create an 

 intermediate appellate court which would re- 

 lieve the Supreme Court of all but the weightier 

 cases. The increase in the number of cases 

 docketed in the successive years since 1840 has 

 been as follows: In 1840, 92 cases; in 1841, 

 106; 1842,170; 1843,128; 1844,168; 1845, 

 177; 1846,182; 1847,216; 1848,230; 1849, 

 295; 1850,252; 1851,237; 1852,156; 1853, 

 195; 1854, 158; 1855, 161; 1856, 256; 1857, 

 279; 1858, 314; 1859, 368; 1860 and 1861, 

 310 each; 1862, 336; 1863,381; 1864,388; 

 1865,389; 1866,451; 1867,438; 1868,538; 

 1869,536; 1870,636; 1871,757; 1872,676; 

 1873,756; 1874,831; 1875,974; 1876,1,046; 

 1877, 1,093 ; 1878, 1,133. 



During the fiscal year which closed with June, 

 the receipts from the sales of postage-stamps, 

 stamped envelopes, and postal cards amounted 

 to $29,539,050, being an increase of $971,866 

 over the receipts of the year 1877-'78. Ac- 

 cording to recent changes made by Congress in 

 the laws regulating the postal service, domestic 

 mail matter is rated in four classes. First-class 

 matter includes letters or matter containing 

 any writing in the nature of personal corre- 

 spondence, and matter which is sealed against 

 inspection. It is subject to the rate of three 

 cents postage on each half ounce and fraction 

 thereof. Second-class matter embraces matter 

 sent by purchasers and news-dealers. Third- 

 class matter embraces books, printed and blank, 

 transient newspapers and periodicals, circulars 

 and other matter wholly in print, proof-sheets 

 and corrected proof-sheets and manuscript copy 

 accompanying the same, prices current with 



