Joseph McKenna

“ The plaintiff in error is a foreign corporation, and what right of contracting has it in the state of Texas? This is the only inquiry, and it cannot find an answer in the rights of natural persons. It can only find an answer in the rights of corporations and the powers of the state over them. What those rights are and what that power is has often been declared by this court.
A corporation is the creature of the law and none of its powers are original. They are precisely what the incorporating act has made them, and can only be exerted in the manner which that act authorizes. ”

“ The act of 1889, as well as that of 1895, provides for the forfeiture of the permit of a foreign corporation which may violate any of the provisions of the statute. . . . The action in force when the appellant entered the state informed it that for a violation of its terms the permit to do business here would be forfeited. This provision of the law was as much a part of the obligation, and as binding upon the appellant, as if it had been expressly made part of the permit.' [19 Tex. Civ. App. 19, 44 S. W. 945.] ”

“ They may exclude the foreign corporation entirely; they may restrict its business to particular localities, or they may exact such security for the performance of its contracts with their citizens as in their judgment will best promote the public interest. The whole matter rests in their discretion.'
And it was also decided that a corporation did not have the rights of its personal members, and could not invoke that provision of § 2, article 4, of the Constitution of the United States, which gave to the citizens of each state the privileges and immunities of citizens of the several states. ”