The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-01-20
SYNOPSISOF THEBRIEF
The Church Corporation Can
not be Dissolved.
BROADHEAD AND RICHARDS
Reasons Why the Edmunds-Tucke,
Law Should be Declared Ingalid
The Points Made,

The brief opens with q review of the
legislation of Congress for Utah, from
the passage of the organic act down
to the Edmunds- Tucker law of 1887,
including the acts Incorporating, and
those attempting to dissolve the Church
corporation, as wellas the anti-polyg
amy provisions of the several acts of
Congress. Following the introduction
is careful and exhaustive analysis of
the record in the case, showing the
claims of the government, the answers
OF the defendants, the petition for
Intervention, the several petitions ask
ing to have the Temple Block, Tithing
Office, Gardo House and Historian
Office set apart to trustees for the use
of the Church, and the findings of fact
and decree Of the Supreme Court OF
Utah. After this comes the assignment
of errors and
ARGUMENT
which opens with consideration oil
the powers of Congress over the Terri
tories as shown by the decisions of the
United States Supreme Court.
It is conceded that the court has de-
clared in Murphy VS.. Ramsey, ia U. S.,
IA, that:
"The people of tbs United States, as
sovereign owners of the national Terri
tories, have the supreme power over
them and their inhabitants. In the
exercise of this sovereign dominion,
they are represented by the govern
ment of the United States. subject
only to such restrictions as are express
ed in the Constitution or necessarily
implied in its terms, or in the purposes
and objects of the power itself: for it
may well be admitted in respect to these,
as to every power of society over its
members, that it is not absolute and
unlimited, still their political rights are
franchises which they hold as privileges
in the legislative discretion of the Con-
gress of the United States.n So
But in the same decision the court
held that: F'.. x
LQ6
inhabitants of the Territories are
secured to them as to other citizens by
the principles of constitutional liberty,
which restrain all the agencies of gov
eminent, state and national"
The theory of our government is out
lined IN the Declaration of Independ-
ence. as well as in the Constitution of
the United States, and it applies to the
a 70 hn 20
has been held by this court in the bred
Scott case, aud in subsequent decisions.
Counsel then proceed to Law down
their propositions of law and to estab-
lish them by legal authorities and ex-
haustive arguments. Our limited SPACE
will only permit of the publication of
the main points relied upon, and few
of the most pertinent authorities sus-
tanning them.
APPELLANTS CLAIMS.
First-1he acts of Congress of July
1. 1852, and of March 8, 1887, are un-
constitutional and void in 80 far as they
attempt to annul the charter of the
appellant corroI 'ton. or to dissolve
said corporation, yr - limit its power
to acquire and ho.d real property. be-
cause said charter was and is an exc
cuted contract which cannot be i'm
paired, either by dissolving the corpor-
alton or by limiting its rights and
powers IN respect to the acquisition of
property.
In speaking of the charter of such q
corporation as this the supreme Court
of the United States, in the Dartmouth
College case, 4 wheat, 637. through Mr..
Chief Justice Marshall. say:
"Thisis plainly q contract to which
the donners, the trustees, and the
crown, to whose obligations New
Hampshire succeeds, were the original
parties. 1t is IA contract made on a
valuable consideration; it is contract
for the security and disposition of
property; it is contract on the faith
of which real and personal estate has
been conveyed TO the corporation; it is,
then, a contract within the letter of the
Constitution and within its spirit
Also" i Z =, ~. :. -, r.. ::
And Mr.. Justice Story, in the sam q
case, quoting from Fletcher VS.. PECK,
pages 6S2 and 6S4, says:
"a contract Is compact between two
or more persons, and is either execu-
tory or executed An eXecutory con-
tract is one in which; party bind, him.
self to do or not to do particular
thing. A contract executed is one in
which the object of the contract is per.
formed; and this, says Blackstone
differs in nothingfrom grant. A con.
tract executed, as well as one that is
executory, contains obligations binding
on the parties. "A grant in its own ma
ture amounts to. an extinguishment of
the right of the grantor, and implies a
contract not to reassert that right. A
party is always estopped by his own
grant. -. "a.
A grant of franchise is not in point
of principle distinguishable from a
grant of any othe- property.
1.-The truth is that the government
has no power to revoke grant. even of
it's own funds, when given to private
person or cor oration for special uses
1t cannot recall its own endowments
granted to any hospital, or college, or
city, or town for the use of such cor
poTations. The only authority rem ain
ing to the government is judicial, to
ascertain the validity of the grant, to