“ I should so contend, upon the plain intent of the charter, from its nature and objects, and from its burdens and duties. It is, confessedly, a case of contract, and not of bounty; a case of contract for a valuable consideration; for objects of public utility; to encourage enterprise; to advance the public convenience; and to secure a just remuneration for large outlays of private capital. What is there in such a grant of the crown, which should demand from any court of justice a narrow and strict interpretation of its terms? ”

“ But the grant of a franchise is not a monopoly, for it is not part or parcel of a common right. No man has a right to build a bridge over a navigable river, or set up a ferry, without the authority of the state. All these franchises, whether public property or public rights, are the peculiar property of the state. They belong to the sovereign, and when they are granted to individuals or corporations, they are in no sense monopolies; because they are not in derogation of common right. ”

“ Wherever any other bridge or ferry is so near, that it injures the franchise, or diminishes the toll, in a positive and essential decree, there it is a nuisance, and is actionable. It invades the franchise, and ought to be abated. But whether there be such an injury or not, is a matter, not of law, but of fact. Distance is no otherwise important than as it bears on the question of fact. All that is required, is, that there should be a sensible, positive injury. ”

“ The power of this court, allow me to say, also, is not omnipotent; and it can acquire no jurisdiction over an act of the legislature, unless such act impairs the obligation of contract. I may add, speaking it with great deference and respect, that while I repose great confidence in this tribunal, I feel no cause for distrust in those of our commonwealth. I, therefore, do not feel that we are unsafe, without such a corrective; as we, in truth, are safe, in most matters upon which our courts adjudicate. ”

“ And if an action lies for an obstruction of passengers, because it goes to impair the right of toll, and to prevent its being earned, why does not the diversion of passengers from the bridge by other means, equally give a cause of action, since it goes, equally, nay more, to impair the right of the plaintiffs to toll? If the legislature could not impair or destroy its own grant, by blocking up all avenues to the bridge, how can it possess the right to draw away all the tolls, by a free bridge, which must necessarily withdraw all passengers? ”

“ Why should it not fall upon the road itself, and no compensation follow to the grantees? It is all alike part and parcel of the same 'eminent domain.' And so, in the case at bar, if that power gives the right to erect another bridge beside our own, why does it not give an equal right to take the latter, also?
Eminent domain is a part of sovereignty, and resides in the sovereign-in the people; what portion of it is granted to the legislature, belongs to them; and what is not granted, remains with the people. Is not the power of eminent domain as well restricted as any other power? ”

“ His words are, that a monopoly is 'an institution by the king, by his grant, commission, or otherwise, to any persons or corporations, of or for the sole buying, selling, making, working or using of everything, whereby any persons or corporations are sought to be restrained of any freedom or liberty they had before, or hindered in their lawful trade.' So, that it is not the case of a monopoly, if the subjects had not the common right or liberty before to do the act, or possess or enjoy the privilege or franchise granted, as a common right. ”

“ What solid ground is there to say, that the words of a grant, in the mouth of a citizen, shall mean one thing, and in the mouth of the legislature shall mean another thing? That in regard to the grant of a citizen, every word shall, in case of any question of interpretation or implication, be construed against him, and in regard to the grant of the government, every word shall be construed in its favor? ”

“ And is it not equally clear, that no provisions contained in the constitution of a state, or in its legislative acts, which subject the obligation of a contract to an unconstitutional control of the state, can be obligatory upon the citizens of the state? If the state has attempted to exercise a power which the federal constitution prohibits, no matter under what form the power may be assumed, or what specious pretexts may be urged in favor of its exercise, the act is unconstitutional and void.
That a state may take private property for public use, is controverted by no one. ”

“ I will leave it to the court to determine, which would be the most becoming posture, and which would best subserve the ends of public justice-to place the plaintiffs at the mercy of the state, or the state at their mercy. They demand, when they say they have a right to exclude injurious competition, that the travel shall be arrested on the north bank of the river, and driven by circuitous and inconvenient ways over their bridge, and shall, in addition, pay tribute perpetually; not to indemnify for the enterprise, but to add to the mass of wealth already accumulated. ”

“ And because they cannot put their finger on the precise spot in the river, where private right ends and public right begins, they have no right at all; because the common law does not, unhappily, furnish a pair of compasses to measure the exact local extent of this franchise, it has no extent at all; because it does not cover the whole river, it is confined to the width of the bridge. Does the law, or do learned judges, deal with nuisances on land in this way? How near to a dwelling-house may one establish a noisome or unwholesome manufactory? ”

“ Whenever he shall deem it necessary for the public good, it is his right by prerogative, his power is discretionary, which the law will not control, unless it is so exercised as to prejudice the right of property existing previously. So long as its possession and use is left to the proprietor, the law does not notice the mere diminution of profits of an existing franchise on a public river, or an arm of the sea, by the erection or a rival franchise beyond its limits; the competition is beneficial to the public, by the increased accommodation afforded, and a diminution of toll exacted. ”

“ It is a right that necessarily rides over all property, and can never be questioned. It is the duty of every government to make compensation, where it is taken; and Massachusetts has made what she deems adequate and suitable provision, by her fundamental law, and it is no part of the business of this government to inquire into the sufficiency or insufficiency of that provision, nor what exposition is put upon it by her courts. The thing does not lie in contract, but in public law; and this court has never gone further than to declare private acts, contracts. ”

“ Where a patent is repealed in chancery, on a scire facias, it is at the suit of the king, on the ground, that he was deceived, and his subjects thereby injured; but there is no case where a court of chancery has ever decreed the prostration of a mill, of a ferry, or other erection, on the sole ground of its diminishing the profits of an ancient one, or the want of power in the king to grant a concurrent franchise, at any place not within the limits of one held by grant, custom or prescription. ”

“ In this very case, the legislature has, upon the very face of the act, made a solemn declaration as to the motive for passing it; that 'the erecting of a bridge over Charles River, &c., will be of great public utility.' What court of justice is invested with authority to gainsay this declaration? To strike it out of the act, and reason upon the other words, as if it were not there? To pronounce that a grant is against the interest of the people, which the legislature has declared to be of great utility to the people? ”

“ If the government means to invite its citizens to enlarge the public comforts and conveniences, to establish bridges, or turnpikes, or canals, or railroads, there must be some pledge, that the property will be safe; that the enjoyment will be co-extensive with the grant; and that success will not be the signal of a general combination to overthrow its rights and to take away its profits. The very agitation of a question of this sort is sufficient to alarm every stockholder in every public enterprise of this sort, throughout the whole country. ”

“ No one can doubt, that the terms of the prohibition are not only broad enough to comprehend all contracts, but that violence will be done to the plain meaning of the language, by making any exception, by construction; it must, therefore, necessarily embrace those contracts, which grant a franchise or property to individuals or corporations, imposing the same restraints on states, as were imposed by the English constitution on the prerogative of the king, which devolved on the states by the revolution. ”

“ Does an implied obligation arise on a grant made by the state, that the legislature shall do nothing to invalidate the grant, which does not arise on every other grant or deed in the commonwealth?
The legislature is bound by the constitution of the state, and it cannot be admitted, that the immediate grantee of the state has a stronger guarantee for the protection of his vested rights against unconstitutional acts, than may be claimed by any other citizen of the state. Every citizen of the state, for the protection of his vested rights, claims the guarantee of the constitution. ”

“ A monopoly, then, is an exclusive privilege conferred on one, or a company, to trade or traffick in some particular article; such as buying and selling sugar or coffee, or cotton, in derogation of a common right. Every man has a natural right to buy and sell these articles; but when this right, which is common to all, is conferred on one, it is a monopoly, and as such, is justly odious. It is, then, something carved out of the common possession and enjoyment of all, and equally belonging to all, and given exclusively to one. ”

“ An exclusive claim, and possession and user, and taking of the profits thereof, for 150 years, by the corporation of Harvard College, without interruption, was as decisive evidence of its exclusive right to the franchise in perpetuity, as the title deed of any man to his own estate. The legislature of Massachusetts has never, so far as I know, breathed a doubt on the point. All the judges of the state court admit the exclusive right of Harvard College to the ferry, in the most unequivocal terms. ”

“ By the common law, and the immemorial usage of this government, all navigable waters are public property, for the use of all the citizens, and there must be some act of the sovereign power, direct or derivative, to authorize any interruption of them.' 'A navigable river is, of common right, a public highway, and a general authority to lay out a new highway must not be so extended as to give a power to obstruct an open highway, already in the use of the public.' Ibid. ”

“ The grant of the franchise of a bridge, twenty feet wide, to be exclusive within those limits, is certainly, if obligatory, an abridgment or surrender of the sovereign power to grant another bridge within the same limits; if we mean to say, that every grant that diminishes the things upon which that power can rightfully act, is such an abridgment. ”