by John Marshall Harlan

“ We cannot presume that it is now, or was in 1870, against the public policy of Illinois that one of its citizens should convey real estate there situated to a benevolent or missionary corporation of another State of the Union, for the purpose of enabling it to carry out the objects of its creation, when that State permitted its own corporations, organized for like purposes, to take real estate within its limits, by purchase, gift, devise, or in any other manner. ”

“ The decision was that it could not, for the reason-and no other is assigned-that the company, if permitted to exercise its functions in Illinois to the full extent authorized by its charter, could acquire lands without limit as to quantity, and hold them in perpetuity; that such privileges had never been accorded by Illinois to her own domestic corporations, and were inconsistent with her settled public policy against perpetuities, as indicated not by express enactment, but with absolute certainty, by the general course of its legislation from the very organization of the State. ”

“ By a general law of Illinois, enacted in 1859, any three or more persons of full age, citizens of the United States, a majority of whom were also required to be citizens of that State, could become a body politic and corporate for benevolent, charitable, educational, literary, musical, scientific, religious, or missionary purposes, and in their corporate capacity take, receive, purchase, and hold real and personal estate, and, for charitable purposes only, sell and convey the same. ”