David Josiah Brewer

“ Would the singling out for punishment of the officers of the free banks be an arbitrary selection? The free banks, though they may be like other banking institutions, are not in all respects the same. ”

“ The power of a state legislature to select certain individuals for the operation of a statute is not an arbitrary power, one that it can exercise without regard to any principle of classification. And yet there is a power of selection. The 14th Amendment was not designed to prevent all exercise of judgment by a state legislature of what the interests of the state require, and to compel it to run all its laws in the channels of general legislation. ”

“ If 'any banking company,' as found in the free banking act, is applicable to every banking institution, no matter under what statute organized, there is no violation of the equal protection of the laws. Counsel for plaintiff in error contend that the supreme court could not have given so broad a meaning to those words, because they are in a section treating of crimes, and the rule of strict construction, which is universal in respect to criminal statutes, forbids its extension to institutions other than those incorporated under the act of which it is a part ”