The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-02-02
THE GREAT RAILROA
CONTROVERSY.
Argument Of Judge Black for the
Atlantic and Great Western
Railway Company

Church and appear, have been very fully and
very ably represents ted by the gentlemen who have
already spoken. The arguments made by Mr..
Wharton and Mr.. Blddle full and ample
that they leave nothing more to be desired. They
have done very full justice TO all the questions
which are peculiarly important TO their clients, as
we'll as to the other questions in which we as well
they have q common interest
You shall hear no supertluous discussions in
this place from us. Besides what l have to say
will be shortened by another consideration,
think have a right 20 presume to know-and il is
my bounden duty!to take IL for granted that this
Court will not decide or give an opinion upon any
subject not directly raised upon the evidence, and
properly brought before the Court on this motion
that your Honor will not allow yourself 70 be-
carried out cf the ecord for the purpose of saying
anything upon any subject, no matter with what
ever power, eloquence and ingenuity other and
irrelevant Considerations may be urged upon your
mind. This is a private controversy between prI-
vate parties, and nothing can be determined here
except strictly legal and private intare Is that are
involved between kthese parties. OF these ques-
tons that form proper subject of adjudication in
this there is hut in which the Atlantic and
Great Western Company is particularly, espe-
cially and exclusively interested, and that seems
TO me to have been thrown into the case more as q
make ght than for any other purpose
The plaintiffs in their bill make quasi denial
that we are corporation. They do not deny 1t
bTayely, boldly plainly, hut they say that we pre-
tend to be a corporation under some law of which
they are profoundly ignorant 1t has not happened
TO them by any chance to have seen book in which
that law was printed.
In the whole course of their very careful
searches in this case they have never come across
any thing that looks like authority for 70 be
ganized as body polite. They are entirely in
nocent of any knowledge upon the subject, and
for their special satisfaction they desire that II
do set up pre,ence of being corporation,
should be held to strict legal proof Of it, that
they NAV rest their conf cences safely in any pro-
ceediugs they may have taken against us.
The answer that we have to make to the Penn
sylvania Railroad Company when 1t asserts that
we are not corporation, or says that IL does not
know whether we are or are not, is one that we
mean to make very nat one. We desire to ex-
press only respect for the gentlemen who manage
The road, and some admiration for the enterprise
which enables them TO do great service 10 the
say to the Pennsy vania Railroad Company It is
none OF your business whether we have q corpo-
ration or not. IT we have not, we are guilty Of
usuTpation, but we have usurped upon the Com
monw ealth alone, and not upon the Pennsy lvanta
Railroad Company, and the Commonwealth is sup
posed to have an existence of its own, separate
and independent altogether of the Pennsylvania
Railroad. l think this is presumption, as it
used to be, however untrue some persons may sup
pose IL to be in point OF fact.
Now If the Common wealth tolerate this
thing, which the plaintiffs allege to be usurpa-
tion, l assume that they ought not to make much
complaint. Who authorized the Pennsylvania
Company to play pdreRs pdtriG for the benefit OF
the great Com mon veal of Pennsyl vania and the
commercial interests of the publicl Who made
her high constable among the sm'lier corporations
of the State, to keep them in order2 Who consu-
luted her Grand lnquistor General to be prying
into the charters of other corporations, demand
ing their charters, and then picking flaws in
them, and asserting whether they right or not1
Why, if your Honor pleases. IL cannot be possible
that anybody will avoid seeing that such doc
trlne as that, such system Of investigation,
would destroy our whole system OF Jurisprudence
in month. The whole thing would fall into mere
| oppugnancy.
II there is any rule that is well understood, 1t is
| that in a controversy between private parties,
there can be no question arise about the duties
which one of these parties may or may not owe to
the public. If public officer takes 1t upon him.
self TO exercise an office to which he is not en-
titled, VINO questions his rghtl Not private in
| dividual against whom he may have issued
warrant or done something in his official capacity
which Affects his private interests, as the title OF
| the officer 10 the place he holds is conclusively
settled If the public authorities tolerate him there
| so is with corporations. Your Honor will pro-
| badly recollect a case-I think it occurred while
you were Attorney General of the State-in which
Gentlemen ~ tne county our Oh WestmoTe,ana We I'm as
Judge OF that judicial district, very distinguished
and highly respectable gentleman, a practising
| lawyer. He was deeply interested in the admins
| tration of justice, and on the withdrawal of the
| commission by which he held his office he under
| testing it. When he came to the Supreme Court
they never looked any further than to see II the
| proper party was making the complaint, and as it
was not the Attorney General who preferred the
charge, but private individual, 1t was laid aside,
as thing that could not be entertained for
When the Supreme Court was first organized,
(soon after the adoption of the present Consttu-
filed bill against a ailway company, urging that
it was about to take his land, that company had
right to do any such thing, as his land was not
upon the route. He asked the Court to decree that
they should follow the true route which the char
face of the bill that it was intended to vlndicate
private right. The Court at once said that public
duties not TO be enforced at the suit OF pri
vate individual although IL was palpable on the
face of the bill that the railway company was ex
ceeding its charter When the Attorney General
came and filed a bill in the same words exactly,
except head and tail, the decree refused in the
first instance was granted at once.
Let me name another not repeated in the
books use more for illustration than authority
About the year 1884, in one OF the townships OF
Cambria county, a man brought suit before a
justice OF the peace, against another for hve dol
lars not IS 49, In the course of the hearing before
the magistrate, became apparent that the claim OF
the plaintiff was founded upon a loan which he had
made TO the defendant of five dollar note OF the
| Bank of the United States. The justice was
ceedingy sound man upon what was then the great
political question of the day, and he saw the mo-
ment the case came before him that here was an OPP
portuniy crush the monster that was not only in
iuring the of Philadelphia and the State,
the plaintiffs here alege against us, but pro-
ducing immense injury TO the currency and trade OF
the whole Union, and accordingly he pronounced
Judgment in favor OF the defendant, on the sole
ground that the Bank of the United States had not
valid charter, and thus conhicted with what he
called 'the great principle ofGeneral Jackson's veto
measure" Whenever in subsequent and frequent
illusions to that enterprise he called on, he in
sisted that the charter OF the Bank was void and
invalid and he knew II to be because he decided
IL himself
Now, his decision was right. There can be no
doubt oft He was perfectly sound, and the only
trouble was that the COURT had jurisdiction TO
make that decision, the Chief Justice OF the Su-
preme Court of the United States, or a majority OF
the Court, would have to make a similar decision
in a case between corporation whose charter is
alleged 70 De invalid and the government that
made and gave that charter.
| Itmust be apparent how difficult il would be to
do justice in country II every man in the conn
try could assume to be the avenger of an injured
law, II the Pennsyl vanta Railroad Company
have the right TO take the red bolts of her ven-
geance and throw them about wherever she deem
| ed them necessary, TO stay the encroachments aud
usurpation OF any other corporation, two res ults
WOuld follow. COrnOTatOn WlnR0 IA