If the law in question binds one party on the
ground of assent to it, it binds both, and binds them until they agree
to terminate its operation. (2.) If the party be bound by an implied
assent to the law, as thereby making the law a part of the contract, how
would it be if the parties had expressly dissented, and agreed that the
law should make no part of the contract? Suppose the promise to have
been, that the promisor would pay at all events, and not take advantage
of the statute; still, would not the statute operate on the whole,--on
this particular agreement and all? and does not this show that the law
is no part of the contract, but something above it? (3.) If the law of
the place be part of the contract, one of its terms and conditions, how
could it be enforced, as we all know it might be, in another
jurisdiction, which should have no regard to the law of the place?
Suppose the parties, after the contract, to remove to another State, do
they carry the law with them as part of their contract? We all know they
do not. Or take a common case. Some States have laws abolishing
imprisonment for debt; these laws, according to the argument, are all
parts of the contract; how, then, can the party, when sued in another
State, be imprisoned contrary to the terms of his contract? (4.) The
argument proves too much, inasmuch as it applies as strongly to prior as
to subsequent contracts. It is founded on a supposed assent to the
exercise of legislative authority, without considering whether that
exercise be legal or illegal.
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