Page:Address of Frederick V. Holman at Oregon Bar Association annual meeting.djvu/14

 judges of the existence of the exigency which demands the sacrifice of the rights of individuals.' 'I admit,' says Mr. Chancellor Walworth, 'that the Legislature are the sole judges as to the expediency of exercising the right of eminent domain for the purpose of making public improvements, either for the benefit of the inhabitants of the State generally, or of any particular section thereof.'

In Bridal Veil Linnhering Co. v. Johnson, 30 Ogn. 205, Mr. Justice Bean said (page 208):

"The right of eminent domain is a right of sovereignty, and can be exercised only by legislative authority."

In Grady v. Dundon, 30 Ogn. 337, Mr. Chief Justice Moore said:

"The power to appropriate private property to public use is derived from the Legislative Assembly, which may prescribe the mode of its exercise, and must provide a judicial tribunal for the determination of certain facts as a prerequisite to the exercise of such power (2 Kent's Commentaries, 340)."

In Huddleston v. Eugene, 34 Ogn. 343, Mr. Justice Moore, speaking of the exercise of the right of Eminent Domain, said (page 358):

"No prerogative of sovereign power should be watched with greater vigilance than that which takes the property of the individual, and devotes it to a public use."

In Grand Ronde Electric Co. v. Drake, 46 Ogn. 246, Mr. Chief Justice Moore said (page 248):

"It has been held by this Court that the Legislative Assembly must in the first instance declare the necessity for and the expediency of an exercise of the right of eminent domain in an act conferring power for that purpose."

It will thus be seen that the Oregon Supreme Court had established the doctrine that under the Constitution of the State the right of Eminent Domain "can be exercised only by legislative authority," and thus made this doctrine a part of the Oregon Constitution. Certainly it is as much a part of the Oregon Constitution as the leading cases decided by the Supreme Court of the United States construing parts of the Constitution of the United States have becom^e a part of the latter Constitution. The opinions of Chief Justice Marshall and other great judges of the Supreme Court of the United States are now recognized by all Courts and by the legal