John Catron

“ Whether the road is too wide or not is not for this court to determine; it is only to determine whether, in the adjudication of the rights of these parties by a state court, validity has been given to a law of the state impairing the obligation of any contract entered into between the state and the appellants, and doing, by such decision, injustice to them. ”

“ If any contract was violated under the act of 1839, it must have been a grant to land vesting the fee simple title; and such title complainants exhibit. To the width of needful roads and ferry-landings, property can undoubtedly be taken, for the purposes of such easements; and necessarily, the state authorities must decide (as a general rule) how much land the public convenience requires. That the power may be abused, no one can deny ”

“ Be it enacted by the people of the state of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, that Samuel Wiggins, his heirs and assigns, be, and they are hereby, authorized to establish a ferry on the waters of the Mississippi, near the town of Illinois in this state, and to run the same from lands at the said place that may belong to him. Provided, that he shall not use any boat or water-craft, except such as shall be propelled or urged to the water by steam, horses, oxen, or other four-footed animals. ”

“ The complainants aver that the land so taken from them is a part of their ferry-landing, as authorized by the two acts of the legislature under which they claim, and that the land so taken is indispensable to the exercise of the franchise with which they are invested. ”

“ The legislature of 1819 acted upon circumstances as they then were, and foreseeing that, from the great advantages the state possessed, in soil, climate, and power of production, and its great capacity for settlement and cultivation, people from distant lands would seek it for a home, reserved the right to take away a privilege, which, when granted, might be of great public benefit, but likely to become in time oppressive. ”

“ Mr. Breeze first contended, that this case did not fall within the jurisdiction of the court, because the Supreme Court of Illinois rested its decision upon the construction of the act of the Legislature, and the extent of the ferry franchise acquired under it; limiting it to the land owned by Wiggins when the act of 1821 was passed, with the exercise of which franchise the law complained of did not interfere. ”