Trustees of Dartmouth College v. Woodward – New Hampshire, 1817 (1 N.H. 111), reversed, 17 U.S. 518 (1819)
| Dartmouth College (1793) - courtesy Wikimedia Commons New Hampshire Gov. William Plumer “[The constitutional prohibition against impairment of contracts] must not be construed to embrace contracts, which are in their nature, mere matters of civil institution; nor grants of power and authority, by a state to indivs, to be exercised for purposes merely public. … “[M]ake the trustees independent, and they will ultimately forget that their office is a public trust … will overlook the great purposes for which their powers were originally given, and will exercise them only to gratify their own private views and wishes, or to promote the narrow purposes of a sect or a party.” – New Hampshire Justice ___, in Dartmouth College |
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