Roger B. Taney

Name: Searight v. Stokes — Opinion of the Court
Author: Roger B. Taney

Searight v. Stokes — Opinion of the Court

Summary

“Searight v. Stokes — Opinion of the Court”, is a work by Roger B. Taney. It explores elements such as the United States, toll and mail.

Quotes from Searight v. Stokes — Opinion of the Court (Roger B. Taney)

Roger B. Taney, Searight v. Stokes — Opinion of the Court

“ This, on the contrary, is a contract between two governments deeply concerned in the welfare of each other; whose dearest interests and happiness are closely and inseparably bound up together, and where an injury to one cannot fail to be felt by the other. Pennsylvania, most undoubtedly, was anxious to give to the general government every aid and facility in its power, consistent with justice to its own citizens, and the government of the United States was actuated by a like spirit. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Roger B. Taney, Searight v. Stokes — Opinion of the Court

“ Under the present law, half toll is charged upon the coaches which carry the mail and passengers; if there is nothing but the mail they go free. Suppose we admit, that the mail is the property of the United States, can a coach be said to be 'laden with the property of the United States' when it has nine passengers in it and only a small mail bag? Or, could this be affirmed of a wagon laden with flour and one musket? Such a construction forces words from their true import. But the mail cannot be properly called the property of the United States. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Roger B. Taney, Searight v. Stokes — Opinion of the Court

“ It passes through Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Ohio, and was constructed at an immense expense by the United States, under the authority of different and successive acts of Congress: the states contributing nothing either to the making of the road or to the purchase of land over which it passes. They did nothing more than enact laws authorizing the United States to construct the road within their respective limits, and to obtain the land necessary for that purpose from the individual proprietors upon the payment of its value. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Roger B. Taney, Searight v. Stokes — Opinion of the Court

“ The right of altering the contract is always reserved to the government, and although there may be three lines now instead of one formerly, yet the letter of the postmaster-general to the governor of Pennsylvania shows, that the mail could not now be carried in one coach. If there can be a toll imposed upon carriages when there are passengers, why not also when there are no passengers? and such an amount may be taxed as will prevent the running of the mail. A question of power cannot be decided by the greater or lesser exercise of it: 4 Wheat. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Roger B. Taney, Searight v. Stokes — Opinion of the Court

“ It therefore became evident, that unless some other means than appropriations from the public treasury could be devised, a work which every one felt to be a great public convenience, in which a large portion of the union was directly and deeply interested, and which had been constructed at so much cost, must soon become a total ruin. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Roger B. Taney, Searight v. Stokes — Opinion of the Court

“ And that by this means the contractors for carrying the mail would in effect obtain a monopoly in the conveyance of passengers throughout the entire length of the road, greatly injurious to the public, by lessening that disposition to accommodate which competition is sure to produce, and enhancing the cost of travelling beyond the limits of a fair compensation. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Roger B. Taney, Searight v. Stokes — Opinion of the Court

“ The 4th section directed the amount of tolls, after deducting expenses, to be applied to the repairs and preservation of the road, and gave the commissioners power to increase or diminish the rates of tolls, provided that they should at no time be increased beyond the rates of toll established by an act incorporating a company to make a road from Harrisburg to Pittsburg, passed in 1806. The toll fixed by this act upon a coach and four horses was twenty cents for every five miles. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Roger B. Taney, Searight v. Stokes — Opinion of the Court

“ But there can be no doubt, that the compact in question, in the case supposed, would not shield the contractor, and upon a case properly made out and established, it would be the duty of a court of justice to enforce the payment of the tolls. No such fact, however, appears or is suggested in the case before us, and the judgment of the Circuit Court is therefore affirmed. ”

Roger B. Taney

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