Robert Cooper Grier

“ In their case, under some fiction of the law, without regard to the fact or their actual undertaking, there has been discovered an implied contract running with the paper, like a covenant running with land, which renders them liable for all the issues of the bank, into whosesoever hands it may come, and forever disables them to lay or collect a tax, or pay a debt, till they have lifted and paid every note of the broken bank in which they were stockholders, although they never directly pledged the faith of the state, or agreed to be liable for a single dollar issued by the bank. ”

“ If a citizen of Arkansas had sued the defendants on their bond, and thus had claimed the right to tender payment of it in anything else than money, owing to some promise or contract of the plaintiff to accept the paper of a particular bank in payment of his bond, no lawyer can pretend that the defendants were not bound to make their defence on the trial, or that, after judgment to pay money, any court has the power to compel the plaintiff to accept anything else. ”

“ It needs no argument to demonstrate that a contract must have at least two parties, and that all laws made by a sovereign state are not necessarily contracts, and therefore irrevocable. The act of the legislature of Arkansas under consideration is entitled, 'An Act to incorporate the Bank of the State of Arkansas.' It creates a corporation and confers certain powers and privileges upon it. ”

“ If individuals had furnished the stock, they would not be personally liable for its debts. If the stockholders had all made deposits of their money in the bank, and received interest on long deposits, and received its notes as gold and silver, it would not have amounted to a contract with the public, or note-holders, or any body else, that they should continue to deposit their money or receive its notes in payment of debts after the bank became insolvent and its notes worthless. ”

“ That if the same rules of law for the interpretation of contracts, and the rights of the parties to them, affect all persons, whether natural or artificial, the individual and the sovereign state, it may fairly be inferred hereafter, that, when a bond or articles, is sued hereafter, that, when upon, the defendant is not bound either to tender them, or plead a tender, but, after judgment for a sum of money, he may make payment to the sheriff of the execution in specific articles, and not in money. ”

“ That when a state, a corporation, or an individual publish to the world their willingness to accept payment of their debts in the issues of a bank, it amounts to a contract, by implication, with the public, and each individual composing it, to guaranty the notes issued by said bank, and that this contract runs with, and is attached to, said notes, in the hands of the bearer, provided the notes were issued before such offer is withdrawn. ”

“ But the plaintiffs in this case are not corporators, or stockholders in the bank; they hold no franchise, powers, or privileges, under the act of incorporation; they are no parties to the contracts, nor have they any vested rights under it, which have been impaired by the repeal of the twenty-eighth section. If the corporation, or those who claim the franchises and powers granted to it, do not complain of an infringement of their contract, no other person can. ”

“ If a creditor gives public notice to his debtors that he will accept, in payment of his debts, wheat, tobacco, or Arkansas notes, and his debtor for a course of seven years refuses or neglects to accept of the offer, and tender payment in such articles, and is afterwards sued upon his bond or note ”