by John Marshall Harlan

“ An unconditional promise, in writing, to accept a bill before it is drawn, shall be deemed an actual acceptance in favor of every person to whom such written promise shall have been shown, and who upon the faith thereof shall have received the bill for a valuable consideration. ”

“ The Missouri statute is a copy of a New York statute, in respect to which Judge DUER, in Blakiston v. Dudley, 5 Duer, 373, 377, said: 'We think that to negotiate a bill can only mean to transfer it for value, and that it is a solecism to say that a bill has been negotiated by a payee who has never parted with its ownership or possession. The fact that the plaintiffs had given value for the bill when they received it only proves its negotiation by the drawer,-its negotiation to, and not by, them. ”

“ The agreement to accept and pay, or to pay upon presentation, was to be entirely performed in Illinois, which was the state of the residence and place of business of the defendants. They were not bound to accept or pay elsewhere that at the place to which, by the terms of the agreement, the stock was to be shipped. Nothing in the case shows that the parties had in view, in respect to the execution of the contract, any other law than the law of the place of performance. That law, consequently, must determine the rights of the parties. ”