David Josiah Brewer

“ Whether the government could challenge the conveyance we need not determine; for if it had any right to interfere, it has not chosen to do so. It is generally true that an executed contract, voluntarily executed, without fraud or duress, is binding, and cannot be repudiated by the party who executed it. ”

“ I do not stop to demonstrate that a contract made by a homesteader to convey to another, when a patent is obtained, a right to strip the land of all the timber, and to vest in such party a right of way for a tramway to make the removal of the timber effectual, is void under the homestead laws of the United States. ”

“ This rule proceeds and rests upon the principle that there is 'no rule of law which prevents a party from performing a promise which could not be legally enforced, or which will permit a party morally but not legally bound to do a certain act or thing, upon the act or thing being done, to recall it to the prejudice of the promisee, on the plea that the promise, while still executory, could not, by reason of some technical rule of law, have been enforced by action.' Newman v. ”