The Charles River
Bridge Company sought to restrain the building of the Warren Bridge as a
breach of contract by the State, but failed to obtain relief in the
state courts, and before the cause could be argued at Washington the
Warren Bridge had become free and had destroyed the value of the Charles
River Bridge, though its franchise had still twenty years to run. As
Story pointed out, no one denied that the charter of the Charles River
Bridge Company was a contract, and, as he insisted, it is only common
sense as well as common justice and elementary law, that contracts of
this character should be reasonably interpreted so far as quiet
enjoyment of the consideration granted is concerned; but all this
availed nothing. The gist of the opposing argument is contained in a
single sentence in the opinion of the Chief Justice who spoke for the
majority of the court: "The millions of property which have been
invested in railroads and canals, upon lines of travel which had been
before occupied by turnpike corporations, will be put in jeopardy" if
this doctrine is to prevail.[21]
The effect of the adoption by the Supreme Court of the United States of
the New York theory of the Police Power was to vest in the judiciary, by
the use of this catch-word, an almost unparalleled prerogative.
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