Horace Harmon Lurton

“ This court is bound to know the law without taking the advice of a jury on the subject. When once it became the settled construction of the Constitution of Illinois that no act can be deemed a valid law unless, by the journals of the legislature, it appears to have been regularly passed by both houses, it became the duty of the courts to take judicial notice of the journal entries in that regard. ”

“ The question as to whether a particular law has been passed in such manner as to become a valid law under the Constitution of the state is a state, and not a Federal, question. Courts of the United States are therefore under obligation to follow the adjudications of the courts of the state whose law is in question. ”

“ That the state of Florida, for the purpose of aiding the construction of said railroad, its branches and extensions, hereby grants unto said company 10,000 acres of land for each mile of railroad it may construct, of the lands granted to the state of Florida, under the act of Congress of September 28th, 1850, and which are commonly known as the swamp and overflowed lands, said lands to be deeded to the said company by the trustees of the internal improvement fund, as fast as each 5 miles of said road or any of its branches are graded, cross-tied, and rails laid thereon. ”