egated to the federal
government, or prohibited to the States; in other words, that she
possesses all the rights and powers essential to the existence of an
independent political organization, except as they are withdrawn
by the provisions of the Constitution of the United States. To the
existence of this political authority of the State--this qualified
sovereignty, or to any part of it--the ownership of the minerals of
gold and silver found within her limits is in no way essential. The
minerals do not differ from the great mass of property, the ownership
of which may be in the United States, or in individuals, without
affecting in any respect the political jurisdiction of the State. They
may be acquired by the State, as any other property may be, but when
thus acquired she will hold them in the same manner that individual
proprietors hold their property, and by the same right; by the right
of ownership, and not by any right of sovereignty."

And referring to the argument of counsel in the case in Plowden, I
said that it would be a waste of time to show that the reasons there
advanced in support of the right of the Crown to the mines could not
avail to sustain any ownership of the State in them. The State takes
no property by reason of "the excellency of the thing," and taxation
furnishes all requisite means for the expenses of government. The
convenience of citizens in commercial transactions is undoubtedly
promoted by a supply of coin, and the right of coinage appertains
to sovereignty. But the exercise of this right does not require the
ownership of the precious metals by the State, nor by the federal
government, where this right is lodged under our system, as the
experience of every day demonstrates.

I also held that, although under the Mexican law the gold and silver
found in land did not pass with a grant of the land, a different
result followed, under the common law, when a conveyance of land
was made by an individual or by the government. By such conveyance
everything passed in any way connected with the land, forming a
portion of its soil or fixed to its surface.

The doctrine of the right of the State by virtue of her sovereignty to
the mines of gold and silver perished with this decision. It was
never afterwards seriously asserted. But for holding what now seems
so obvious, the judges were then grossly maligned as acting in the
interest of monopolists and land owners, to the injury of the laboring
class.