Robert Cooper Grier

“ Richmond City, the Petersburg, Richmond, and Potomac Railroad, the James River Canal, and the Wheeling interests, acting in concert, have heretofore successfully combated 'the right of way.' These interests fall far short of a majority in the two branches of the Virginia legislature. There is no sufficient ground, in the numeric force of this antagonist interest, to discourage the hope of an eventual success. On an examination of their arguments, based either upon justice or expediency, I find nothing to challenge a conviction of right, or an assurance of high State policy. ”

“ The mass of the members in our legislature are a thoughtless, careless, light-hearted body of men, who come there for the 'per diem,' and to spend the 'per diem.' For a brief space they feel the importance and responsibility of their position. They soon, however, engage in idle pleasures, and, on all questions disconnected with their immediate constitutents, they become as wax, to be moulded by the most pressing influences. ”

“ But a citizen who has made a contract, and has a 'controversy' with a corporation, may also say, with equal truth, that he did not deal with a mere metaphysical abstraction, but with natural persons; that his writ has not been served on an imaginary entity, but on men and citizens; and that his contract was made with them as the legal representatives of numerous unknown associates, or secret and dormant partners. ”

“ If severity of legislation be any evidence of the practice of the offences prohibited, it must be the duty of courts to take a firm stand, and discountenance, as against the policy of the law, any and every contract which may tend to introduce the offences prohibited. ”

“ But where persons act as counsel or agents, or in any representative capacity, it is due to those before whom they plead or solicit, that they should honestly appear in their true characters, so that their arguments and representations, openly and candidly made, may receive their just weight and consideration. A hired advocate or agent, assuming to act in a different character, is practising deceit on the legislature. ”

“ Influences secretly urged under false and covert pretences must necessarily operate deleteriously on legislative action, whether it be employed to obtain the passage of private or public acts. Bribes, in the shape of high contingent compensation, must necessarily lead to the use of improper means and the exercise of undue influence. Their necessary consequence is the demoralization of the agent who covenants for them ”

“ Persons entering into the marriage relation should be free from extraneous or deceptive influences; hence the law avoids all contracts to pay money for procuring a marriage. It is the interest of the State that all places of public trust should be filled by men of capacity and integrity, and that the appointing power should be shielded from influences which may prevent the best selection; hence the law annuls every contract for procuring the appointment or election of any person to an office. ”

“ The right of choosing an impartial tribunal is a privilege of no small practical importance, and more especially in cases where a distant plaintiff has to contend with the power and influence of great numbers and the combined wealth wielded by corporations in almost every State. ”

“ The presumption arising from the habitat of a corporation in the place of its creation being conclusive as to the residence or citizenship of those who use the corporate named and exercise the faculties conferred by it, the allegation that the 'defendants are a body corporate by the act of the General Assembly of Maryland,' is a sufficient averment that the real defendants are citizens of that State. ”

“ And if there was no actual agreement to practise such concealment, yet he is not entitled to recover if he did conceal from the members of the legislature, when advocating the passage of the law, that he was acting as agent for the defendant, and was to receive a compensation, in money, in case the law passed.'
It is an undoubted principle of the common law, that it will not lend its aid to enforce a contract to do an act that is illegal; or which is inconsistent with sound morals or public policy ”

“ That all contracts for a contingent compensation for obtaining legislation, or to use personal or any secret or sinister influence on legislators, is void by the policy of the law.
2d. Secrecy, as to the character under which the agent or solicitor acts, tends to deception, and is immoral and fraudulent; and where the agent contracts to use secret influences, or voluntarily, without contract with his principal, uses such means, he cannot have the assistance of a court to recover compensation. ”

“ You must inspire your agents with an earnest, nay, an anxious wish for success. The rich reward of their labors must depend on success. Give them nothing if they fail-endow them richly if they succeed. This is, in brief space, the outline of my plans. Reason and justice are with you; an enlarged expediency favors your claim. You have able advocates, and the best of the argument; yet, with all these advantages, you have been defeated. I think I have pointed out the cause. Your opponents better understand the nature of the tribunal before which this vast interest is brought. ”

“ All persons whose interests may in any way be affected by any public or private act of the legislature, have an undoubted right to urge their claims and arguments, either in person or by counsel professing to act for them, before legislative committees, as well as in courts of justice. ”

“ State laws, by combining large masses of men under a corporate name, cannot repeal the Constitution. All corporations must have trustees and representatives who are usually citizens of the State where the corporation is created: and these citizens can be sued, and the corporate property charged by the suit. ”

“ All your agents must be inspired by an active zeal and a determined purpose of success. This can only be accomplished for you by offers of high contingent compensation.
I will illustrate this point by a single example. Were I to become your agent on my plan, I should like to have the services of Major Charles Hunton, of this county. Hunton, for many years, was a member of our State senate. His last year of service was as president of that body. He is an unpretending man, of good understanding and excellent address. ”

“ Two thousand dollars would stimulate his utmost energies. If I am enabled to offer such inducements, I should have great confidence of success. Under this plan you pay nothing unless a law be passed which your company will accept. Of what value would such a law be to you? Measure this value, and let your own interests, in view of the high stake you play for, fix the price. There is no use in sending a boy on a man's errand; a low offer, and that contingent, is bad judgment; high service can't be had at a low bid. ”

“ Justice Catron, in his opinion delivered in the case of Rundle, already referred to, that 'if the United States courts could be ousted of jurisdiction, and citizens of other States be forced into the State courts, without the power of election, they would often be deprived, in great cases, of all benefit contemplated by the Constitution; and in many cases be compelled to submit their rights to judges and juries who are inhabitants of the cities where the suit must be tried, and to contend with powerful corporations, where the chances of impartial justice would be greatly against them ”

“ In courts of law, an act of incorporation and a corporate name are necessary to enable the representatives of a numerous association to sue and be sued. 'And this corporation can have no legal existence out of the bounds of the sovereignty by which it is created. ”

“ I never saw a class of men more eminently kind and social in their intercourse. Through these qualities they may be approached and influenced to do any thing not positively wrong, or which will not affect prejudicially their immediate constituency. On this question of the 'right of way,' a decided majority of the members can vote either way without fear of their constituents. On this question, therefore, I consider the most active influences will ever be the most successful. ”

“ Speculators in legislation, public and private, a compact corps of venal solicitors, vending their secret influences, will infest the capital of the Union and of every State, till corruption shall become the normal condition of the body politic, and it will be said of us as of Rome-'omne Romae venale.' That the consequences we deprecate are not merely visionary, the act of Congress of 1853, c. ”

“ The necessities and conveniences of trade and business require that such numerous associates and stockholders should act by representation, and have the faculty of contracting, suing, and being sued in a factitious or collective name. But these important faculties, conferred on them by State legislation, for their own convenience, cannot be wielded to deprive others of acknowledged rights. ”

“ It is true that these stockholders are corporators, and represented by this 'juridical person,' and come under the shadow of its name. But for all the purposes of acting, contracting, and judicial remedy, they can speak, act, and plead, only through their representatives or curators. For the purposes of a suit or controversy, the persons represented by a corporate name can appear only by attorney, appointed by its constitutional organs. ”

“ Legislators should act with a single eye to the true interest of the whole people, and courts of justice can give no countenance to the use of means which may subject them to be misled by the pertinacious importunity and indirect influences of interested and unscrupulous agents or solicitors. ”

“ That the modified agreement of February 11th, 1847, which made Hunter's substitute, modified as stated in the foregoing prayer, the standard of the law which was to be obtained to entitle the plaintiff to the stipulated compensation, made it necessary that such law should give to the defendants the absolute right to approach the city of Wheeling by way of Fish Creek ”

“ They act on individuals of the body out of doors and in their chambers. Your adversaries are on the spot, and hover around the careless arbiters of the question in vigilant and efficient activity. The contest, as now waged, is most unequal. ”

“ That the modified contract of the 11th of February looked to the obtaining of the passage of Hunter's substitute, with the adoption of Fish Creek instead of Fishing Creek, as the point of striking the Ohio. ”

“ I know the influences that effected this, and am happy to say they will not exist next winter.
Edmund Broaddus, for many years a representative from Culpepper, a shrewd, intelligent man, influenced this result. Broaddus was a sort of prot eg e of the Richmond and James River whigs, was distinguished and promoted by them, and habitually acted with them. His place is now filled by Slaughter, a personal friend of mine. I should have little fear to carry this section of the State.
The proposed plan best speaks for itself; if you think it feasible, there is no time to be lost. ”

“ That if the jury shall believe that the plaintiff received from the defendants the six hundred dollars given in evidence in full discharge of his claims for compensation under the agreement in question, then the plaintiff is not entitled to recover. ”

“ The use of such means and such agents will have the effect to subject the State governments to the combined capital of wealthy corporations, and produce universal corruption, commencing with the representative and ending with the elector. ”

“ The defendants then offered in evidence, in support of their defence, on the ground of illegality of the contract, a letter from the plaintiff to the president of the board, dated 17th November, 1846, with an accompanying document, in which plaintiff proposes himself as agent, and states his terms; and the course he advises to be pursued, and the means to be used to ensure success ”

“ Johnson, for the defendants in error.
All the points, on either side, relating to the particular route to be attained, are omitted, because it would be impossible to explain them without maps and minute geographical details.
With respect to the three first instructions, the counsel for the plaintiff in error contended:
1. That the first instruction is erroneous-becausea. There is no proof of any understanding between the parties at the time of the contract, that the services were to be of the nature mentioned in the paper No. 1.
b. No service is proposed in paper No. ”