“I do not pretend to dispense equity at large, but only by the consent of the parties, upon a rule of Court.”

“Courts of equity have always considered it of the greatest possible importance that parties should not sleep on their rights.”

“Parties cannot by consent give to the Court a power which it would not have without it.”

“Courts of equity make their decrees so as to arrive at the justice of the case without violating the rules of law.”

“I have always thought it highly injurious to the public that different rules should prevail in the different Courts on the same mercantile case. My opinion has been uniform on that subject. It sometimes indeed happens that in questions of real property Courts of law find themselves fettered with rules, from which they cannot depart, because they are fixed and established rules1; though equity may interpose, not to contradict, but to correct, the strict and rigid rules of law. But in mercantile questions no distinction ought to prevail. The mercantile law of this country is founded on principles of equity; and when once a rule is established in that Court as a rule of property, it ought to be adopted in a Court of law. For this reason Courts of law of late years have said that, even where the action is founded on a tort, they would discover some mode of defeating the plaintiff, unless his action were also founded on equity; and that though the property might on legal grounds be with the plaintiff, if there were any claim or charge by the defendant, they would not consider the retaining of the goods as a conversion.”

“A Court of equity knows its own province.”

“It is true that Courts of equity, in administering justice, sometimes go further than the Courts of law.”

“You may ask what then will become of the fundamental principles of equity and fair play which our constitutions enshrine; and whether I seriously believe that unsupported they will serve merely as counsels of moderation. I do not think that anyone can say what will be left of those principles; I do not know whether they will serve only as counsels; but this much I think I do know — that a society so riven that the spirit of moderation is gone, no court can save; that a society where that spirit flourishes, no court need save; that in a society which evades its responsibility by thrusting upon the courts the nurture of that spirit, that spirit in the end will perish.”

“To pretend, I actually do the thing: I have therefore only pretended to pretend.”

“A Court of equity can mould interests differently from a Court of law; and can give relief in cases where a Court of law cannot.”