They have imposed
prohibitions and restraints; and they have not rendered these altogether
vain and nugatory by conferring the power of dispensation. If
inconvenience should arise which the legislature cannot remedy under the
power conferred upon it, it is not answerable for such inconvenience.
That which it cannot do within the limits prescribed to it, it cannot do
at all. No legislature in this country is able, and may the time never
come when it shall be able, to apply to itself the memorable expression
of a Roman pontiff: "Licet hoc _de jure_ non possumus, volumus tamen _de
plenitudine potestatis_."
The case before the court is not of ordinary importance, nor of
every-day occurrence. It affects not this college only, but every
college, and all the literary institutions of the country. They have
nourished hitherto, and have become in a high degree respectable and
useful to the community. They have all a common principle of existence,
the inviolability of their charters. It will be a dangerous, a most
dangerous experiment, to hold these institutions subject to the rise and
fall of popular parties, and the fluctuations of political opinions. If
the franchise may be at any time taken away, or impaired, the property
also may be taken away, or its use perverted. Benefactors will have no
certainty of effecting the object of their bounty; and learned men will
be deterred from devoting themselves to the service of such
institutions, from the precarious title of their offices.
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