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Smith v. Swormstedt. 16 H.

in of the report, and confirmation of the same, a decree shall be entered in favor of the complainants for that amount.

*Order. This cause came on to be heard on the trans- [ * 310 ] cript of the record, from the circuit court of the United States for the district of Ohio, and was argued by counsel. On consideration whereof it is ordered, adjudged, and decreed by this court that the decree of said circuit court in this cause be and the same is hereby reversed and annulled. And this court doth further find, adjudge, and decree:

1. That, under the resolutions of the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, holden at the city of New York, according to the usage and discipline of said church, passed on the eighth day of June, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and forty-four, (in the pleadings mentioned,) it was, among other things, and in virtue of the power of the said General Conference, well agreed and determined by the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States of America, as then existing, that, in case the annual conferences in the slaveholding States should find it necessary to unite in a distinct ecclesiastical connection, the ministers, local and travelling, of every grade and office, in the Methodist Episcopal Church, might attach themselves to such new ecclesiastical connection, without blame.

2. That the said annual conferences in the slaveholding States did find and determine that it was right, expedient, and necessary to erect the annual conferences last aforesaid into a distinct ecclesiastical connection, based upon the discipline of the Methodist Episcopal Church aforesaid, comprehending the doctrines and entire moral and ecclesiastical rules and regulations of the said discipline, (except only in so far as verbal alterations might be necessary to, or for a distinct organization,) which new ecclesiastical connection was to be known by the name and style of the Methodist Episcopal Church South; and that the Methodist Episcopal Church South was duly organized under said resolutions of the said General Conference, and the said decision of said annual conferences last aforesaid, in a convention thereof held at Louisville, in the State of Kentucky, in the month of May, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and forty-five.

3. That, by force of the said resolutions of June the eighth, eighteen hundred and forty-four, and of the authority and power of the said General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church as then existing, by which the same were adopted, and by virtue of the said finding and determination of the said annual conferences in the

Smith v. Swormstedt. 16 H.

slaveholding States therein mentioned, and by virtue of the [* 311] organization of such conferences into a * distinct ecclesiastical connection as last aforesaid, the religious association known as the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States of America as then existing, was divided into two associations or distinct Methodist Episcopal churches, as in the bill of complaint is alleged.

4. That the property denominated the Methodist Book Concern at Cincinnati, in the pleadings mentioned, was, at the time of said division, and immediately before, a fund subject to the following use - that is to say, that the profits arising therefrom, after retaining a sufficient capital to carry on the business thereof, were to be regularly applied towards the support of the deficient travelling, supernumerary, superannuated, and worn-out preachers of the Methodist Episcopal Church, their wives, widows, and children, according to the rules and discipline of said church; and that the said fund and property are held under the act of incorporation in the said answer mentioned, by the said defendants, Leroy Swormstedt and John H. Power, as agents of said Book Concern, and in trust for the purposes thereof.

5. That, in virtue of the said division of said Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States, the deficient, travelling, supernumerary, superannuated, and worn-out preachers, their wives, widows, and children comprehended in, or in connection with, the Methodist Episcopal Church South, were, are, and continue to be beneficiaries of the said Book Concern to the same extent, and as fully as if the said division had not taken place, and in the same manner and degree as persons of the same description who are comprehended in, or in connection with, the other association, denominated since the division of the Methodist Episcopal Church; and that as well the principal as the profits of said Book Concern, since said division, should of right be administered and managed by the respective general and annual conferences of the said two associations and churches, under the separate organizations thereof, and according to the shares or proportions of the same as hereinafter mentioned, and in conformity with the rules and discipline of said respective associations, so as to carry out the purposes and trusts aforesaid.

6. That so much of the capital and property of said Book Concern at Cincinnati, wherever situate, and so much of the produce and profits thereof as may not have been heretofore accounted for to said church south, in the New York case hereinafter mentioned, or otherwise, shall be paid to said church south, according to the rate and proportions following, that is to say, in respect to the capital, such share or part, as corresponds with the proportion which the

Smith v. Swormstedt. 16 H.

number of the travelling preachers in the annual con- [* 312 ] ferences which formed themselves into the Methodist Episcopal Church South, bore to the number of all the travelling preachers of the Methodist Episcopal Church before the division thereof, which numbers shall be fixed and ascertained as they are shown by the minutes of the several annual conferences next preceding the said division and new organization in the month of May, A. D. eighteen hundred and forty-five.

And in respect to the produce or profits, such share or part as the number of annual conferences which formed themselves into the Methodist Episcopal Church South bore, at the time of said division, in May, a. D. 1845, to the whole number of annual conferences then being in the Methodist Episcopal Church, excluding the Liberia Conference; so that the division or apportionment of said produce and profits shall be had by conferences, and not by numbers of the travelling preachers.

7. That said payment of capital and profits, according to the ratios of apportionment so declared, shall be made and paid to the said Smith, Parsons, and Green, as commissioners aforesaid, or their successors, on behalf of said church south and the beneficiaries therein, or to such other person or persons as may be thereto authorized by the General Conference of said church south, the same to be subsequently managed and administered so as to carry out the trusts and uses aforesaid, according to the discipline of said church south, and the regulations of the General Conference thereof.

8. And in order more fully to carry out the matters hereinbefore settled and adjudged, it is further ordered and decreed, that this cause be remanded to the said circuit court for further proceedings that is

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That the same be referred to a master to take and state an account as follows:

1. Of the amount and value of the said Book Concern at Cincinnati, on the first day of May, 1845, and of what specific property and effects (according to a general description or classification thereof) the same then consisted, whether composed of real or personal estate, and of whatever nature or description the same may have been; and a similar account as of the date or time when the said master shall take this account.

2. Of the produce and profits of said Book Concern, from the time of the General Conference of May, 1844, as reported thereto, (if so reported,) up to the time of the said division in May, 1845, and from the last-mentioned date down to the time of making up his report: specifying how much of said profits and produce have been trans

Smith v. Swormstedt. 16 H.

ferred to said Book Concern, at New York, and accounted *313] for to said church south in the * settlement of the case there; and how much remains to be accounted for to said

church south on the basis settled by this decree.

And in taking said accounts, and in the execution of said reference, the said defendants shall produce, on oath, all deeds, accounts, books of account, instruments, reports, letters, and copies of letters, memoranda, documents, and writings, whatever pertinent to said reference, in their possession or control, and the said defendants may be examined, on oath, on the said reference; and each party may produce evidence before the master, and have process to compel the attendance of witnesses.

And the said master is further directed, in respect to any annual profits of said concern, not heretofore accounted for to said church south, to allow to said church south interest at the rate of 6 upon such unpaid balances from the date at which the same ought to have been paid.

per cent.

And in respect to all the costs in this case, including the costs of the reference, and all other costs from the commencement of the case until its conclusion, and in respect to the fees of counsel and solicitors therein, of both parties, so far as the same may be reasonable, and in respect of just and necessary expenses, as well of plaintiffs as of defendants in conducting the suit, the same ought to be paid out of said Book Concern, and a common charge thereon, before apportionment and division, and the master is accordingly directed to allow and pay the same to the respective parties entitled thereto, and then to apportion the residue according to the principles fixed in this decree.

And the master is further directed to return his report to the said circuit court with all convenient despatch, which court shall then proceed to enforce the payment of whatever sum or sums may be found due to said church south, on the confirmation of the master's report, in such instalments as may be by said court adjudged reasonable, each party having due opportunity of excepting to the master's report; and all questions arising upon said report, and not settled by this decree, may be moved before said circuit court, to which court either party shall be at liberty to apply on the footing of this decree.

17 H. 591; 18 H. 480.

Marshall v. Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Co. 16 H.

ALEXANDER J. MARSHALL, Plaintiff in Error, v. THE BALTIMORE AND OHIO RAILROAD COMPANY.

16 H. 314.

The jurisdiction of the circuit courts of the United States where a corporation is a party, reexamined and held to attach, where the averment on the record shows that a citizen of one State sues a corporation, created by the legislature of another State.

All contracts for a contingent compensation for obtaining legislation, or to use personal, or any secret, or sinister influence on legislators, are void.

Secrecy, as to the character under which the agent or solicitor acts, tends to deception, and is immoral and fraudulent; and where the agent contracts to use such secrecy, or voluntarily does use it, he cannot have the aid of a court to recover compensation.

What, in the technical language of politicians, is denominated "log rolling," is a misdemeanor at common law, punishable by indictment.

THE case is stated in the opinion of the court.

Davis and Schley, for the plaintiff.

Latrobe and Johnson, contrà.

GRIER, J., delivered the opinion of the court.

[* 325 |

A question, necessarily preliminary to our consideration

of the merits of this case, has been brought to the notice of the court, though not argued or urged by the counsel.

The plaintiff in error, who was also plaintiff below, avers in his declaration that he is a citizen of Virginia, and that "The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, the defendant, is a body corporate by an act of the general assembly of Maryland." It has been objected, that this averment is insufficient to show jurisdiction in the courts of the United States over the "suit" or "controversy." The decision of this court in the case of The Louisville Railroad v. Letson, 2 How. 497, it is said, does not sanction it, or, if some of the doctrines advanced should seem so to do, they are extrajudicial, and therefore not authoritative.

The published report of that case (whatever the fact may have been) exhibits no dissent to the opinion of the court by any member of it. It has, for the space of ten years, been received by the bar as a final settlement of the questions which have so frequently arisen. under this clause of the constitution; and the practice and forms of pleading in the courts of the United States have been conformed to it. Confiding in its stability, numerous controversies, involving property and interests to a large amount, have been heard and decided by the circuit courts, and by this court; and many are still pending here, where the jurisdiction has been assumed on the faith of the sufficiency of such an averment. If we should now declare these judgments to have been entered without jurisdiction or authority, we should inflict

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