When a law is in its nature a contract, when absolute rights have vested under that contract, a repeal of the law cannot divest those rights.

When a law is in its nature a contract, when absolute rights have vested under that contract, a repeal of the law cannot divest those rights. The people can act only by their agents and, within the powers conferred upon them, their acts must be considered as the acts of the people.

It seems to be a law of nature, inflexible and inexorable, that those who will not risk cannot win.

Indeed, in a free government almost all other rights would become worthless if the government possessed power over the private fortune of every citizen

The law regards man as man, and takes no account of his surroundings or of his color when his civil rights as guaranteed by the supreme law of the land are involved.

As for the law--it catered for a human nature of which it took a naturally low view.