Stephen Johnson Field

“ If the money be already in the treasury appropriated for their payment, or if provision be made for the levy and collection of taxes sufficient to pay them, it cannot be justly said that the relator is delayed in enforcing them by being required to place a certified copy of the judgments with the controller of the city before getting a warrant on its treasury for the amount due him. If such warrant, when obtained, be not paid, or provision be not made for its payment upon the meeting of the city council, the relator can pursue further remedies for the collection of his judgments. ”

“ The obligation of a contract, in the constitutional sense, is the means provided by law by which it can be enforced,-by which the parties can be obliged to perform it. Whatever legislation lessens the efficacy of these means impairs the obligation. ”