The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1889-11-26

bids them is itself unconstitutional,
because it impairs the obligation of a
contract. Let us see whether there
be or not any truth in this plea.
If the State had in express terms
authorized them to impose unreason.
able tolls or taxes upon the people for
the use of their own roads, the grant
would be void. Judge Baldwin's
opinion to that effect in Bonaparte Us.
The Camden and Am6oy Railroad
Company has never been denied or its
soundness doubted from the day il
was delivered to the present time. To-
give the corporation a pc yer like that
would be to give it the public highway
as private property; to arm a body Of
mere adventures with the public
authority of the Commonwealth, and
to convert railroad managers from
public servants into public robbers.
You might as well say that the Leg
islature could sell the State out and
out.
Upon the same principle a grant of
authority to discriminate between n
citizen and another is worthless. The
rights of all the people to be protected
against robbery and extortion ara pre-
cisely equal, and the Legislature can.
not barter away n more than the
rest; that is to say, a wholesale bar
gain of that kind would be no worse
than a contract to sell the rights Of
individual citizens at retail.
If, therefore, these companies had
a bargain with the State, expressly
giving them power to charge unreason
able or discriminating freights, it
would be a mere nullity and of course
revocable at the will of the Legisla-
ture.
But no such contract was i've made
between this State and any railroad
company, at least | never saw an act
of incorporation upon which a decent
pretence of that kind could be set up.
IN PUBLIC RANTS NOTHING PASSES BY
CONSTRUCTION.
You must remember that in a pub
lie grant, whether of land, money or
franchises, nothing passes by construc-
ton; the grantee at the very utmost
gets only what is given in express
words of which the sense is too plain
to be misunderstanding goes by
inference-no ambiguous phrase a r
ries with it anything to swell the
dimensions of the gift.
Now, where is the express grant of
power to take more than a fair and
reasonable toll for the use of any rail
road? In what act of incorporation
is it stipulated that the State may not
adjust the tolls according to what she,
by her proper authorities, shall deem
a reasonable ruler The sole answer
ever given to this is, that in some, if
not all of the charters, there is a pro
vision forbiddang the company to make
any charge beyond a certain rate per
ton per mile, and from this prohibition
against taking more they infer the
right to take, in spite of the State,
anything they please under that maxi
mum, whether it be reasonable or not.
But it is precisely such differences that
you cannot make; they are excluded
by the rule Of Interpretation already
mentioned.
Neither does their practice of dis
elimination find the slightest counter
ance in any word of the characters.
When did you eve see an act of in
corporation expressly declaring that
the company shall have power to
make a difference between two citizens
whose legal and natural rights to the
use of the highway are precisely the
same2 Where do you find the words
which clothe any company with the
awful power to crush out the business
of one mar with burdens which he
cannot bear, in order that another, in
which the railroad has an interest,
nay be built up? But especially and
particularly I desire to know what
part of any bargain with the State
justifes the extortion of higher rates
from a poor man, on his little freights,
than from a rich on his great and
valuable cargoes? If you cannot put
your finger on the very words that
give this authority, then the author
ity is withheld and the practice for.
hidden.
But that is not all. The limitation
of the charges to rates, perfectly and
uniformly proportional to we ght and
distance, must be apparent to any one
who will consider. the nature of the
contract, the subject matter of it and
the parties to it. The Common wealth,
reserving the equal proprietary rights
of all the people to the use of the
highway, agrees to employ a corporation
s her agent, to see that the exercise
OF the right by every citizen is proper
~ facilitated, and never, in any case,
impeded, delayed or hindered. The
agent agrees to do this service at rates
which, in the aggregate, will be a