Joseph P. Bradley

“ The majority of the court was clearly of opinion that a right on the part of the State to withdraw the funds of the bank for the uses of the State, or to pay the debts of the State, would render the bank itself obnoxious to the tenth section of the first article of the Constitution, which prohibits a State from emitting bills of credit, inasmuch as it would destroy the distinctive existence and independent credit of the bank, which independent credit is founded on the inviolability of the capital pledged for the payment of its debts. ”

“ It was a law which the bank could not question; only creditors, whose interests were in conflict with it, could question it. As an enactment, it created ipso facto, a trust, and made the bank a trustee for the parties provided for by it. It was a trust on which the bondholders, when made acquainted with its terms, had a right to rely. They became, if they assented to it, cestuis que trust with vested rights. Being made for their benefit, it will be presumed that they did assent to it, if they expressed no dissent. ”

“ If it was not valid its repeal cannot be questioned. It is contended before us that it is invalid because it appropriates the assets of the bank to persons who are not creditors of the bank, but creditors of the State only. ”