Opinion of the Court. The second case of the Texas and Pacific Railway Company was a suit brought by Laura Kirk against the company in the District Court of the Second Judicial District of Texas, in March, 1881, to recover damages for the death of her husband, caused by the company's cars running off the track. The petition for removal was filed in this case similar in all respects to that in the preceding case. A second petition was filed a few days later, adding an averment that the defendant had fixed its domicil and principal business office at Philadelphia, in the State of Pennsylvania, and was in contemplation of law a citizen of that State. The prayer of the petition was denied, the cause went to trial, judgment was rendered for the plaintiff, an appeal was taken, and the judgment was affirmed by the Supreme Court of Texas, upon the reasons and authority of the previous case of McAlister v. The Texas and Pacific Railway Company. The case is now here by writ of error. The third and last case of the Texas and Pacific Railway Company was a suit brought by James Murphy against the company (or rather against one of its constituent companies, and afterwards, by amendment against the company itself) in the District Court of Harrison County, Texas, in 1873, to recover damages for an injury received by the plaintiff in getting upon the cars of the company at Jonesville, Texas. The pleadings were amended from time to time on both sides, and the cause was continued, until finally an amended original petition was filed in October, 1878, followed by a petition for removal filed November 1, 1878. The prayer of the petition was denied. The case was afterwards tried, and a verdict and judgment rendered for the plaintiff; and in May, 1883, this judgment was affirmed by the Supreme Court of Texas on appeal. On the question of removal the court followed the decision in the McAlister case above stated. No question was raised in this case on account of the time at which the petition for removal was filed. The application for removal was treated by the court as made under § 640 of the Revised Statutes. With some diversification of details, it will be perceived that all of these cases depend principally on two questions: First, whether the fact that the plaintiffs in error are corpo Opinion of the Court. rations of the United States created by act of Congress makes the suits against them "suits arising under the laws of the United States," within the meaning of the second section of the act of March 3, 1875, before referred to, so as to be removable from the State into the federal courts for that cause: and, Secondly, whether, if not removable on that ground, they are removable under § 640 of the Revised Statutes, upon the allegation contained in the several petitions of removal, that the defendant has a defence to the action arising under and by virtue of a law of the United States, naming, in sne cases, the act of incorporation as the law referred to. We are of opinion that corporations of the United States, created by and organized under acts of Congress like the plaintiffs in error in these cases, are entitled as such to remove into the Circuit Courts of the United States suits brought against them in the State courts, under and by virtue of the act of March 3, 1875, on the ground that such suits are suits “arising under the laws of the United States." We do not propose to go into a lengthy argument on the subject; we think that the question has been substantially decided long ago by this court. - The exhaustive argument of Chief Justice Marshall in the case of Osborn v. Bank of the United States, 9 Wheat. 738, 817-828, delivered more than sixty years ago, and always acquiesced in, renders any further discussion unnecessary to show that a suit by or against a corporation of the United States is a suit arising under the laws of the United States. That argument was the basis of the decision on the jurisdictional question in that case. The precise question, it is true, was as to the power of Congress to authorize the bank to sue and be sued in the United States courts. The words of its charter were, that the bank should be made able and capable in law to "sue and be sued, plead and be impleaded, answer and be answered, defend and be defended, in all State courts having competent jurisdiction, and in any Circuit Court of the United States." The power to create such a jurisdiction in the federal courts rested solely on the truth of the proposition, that a suit by or against the bank would be a suit arising under the laws of the United States; for the Constitution confined the judicial power of the United Opinion of the Court. States to these four classes of cases, namely: first, to cases in law and equity, arising under the Constitution, the laws of the United States, and treaties made under their authority; secondly, to cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls; thirdly, to cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction; fourthly, to certain controversies depending on the character of the parties, such as controversies to which the United States are a party, those between two or more States, or a State and citizens of another State, or citizens of different States, or citizens of the same State claiming lands under grants of different States, or a State or its citizens and foreign States, citizens or subjects. Now, suits by or against the United States Bank could not possibly, as such, belong to any of these classes except the first, namely, cases in law and equity arising under the Constitution, laws or treaties of the United States; and the Supreme Court, as well as the distinguished counsel who argued the Osborn case, so understood it. Unless, therefore, a case in which the bank was a party was for that reason a case arising under the laws of the United States, Congress would not have had the power to authorize it to sue and be sued in the Circuit Court of the United States. And to this question, to wit, whether such a case was a suit arising under. the laws of the United States, the court directed its principal attention. But as it was objected that several questions of general law might arise in a case, besides that which depended upon an act of Congress, the court first disposed of that objection, holding that, as scarcely any case occurs every part of which depends on the Constitution, laws or treaties of the United States, it is sufficient for the purposes of federal jurisdiction if the case necessarily involves a question depending on such Constitution, laws or treaties. The Chief Justice then proceeds as follows: We think, then, that when a question to which the judicial power of the Union is extended by the Constitution, forms an ingredient of the original cause, it is in the power of Congress to give the Circuit Courts jurisdiction of that cause, although other questions of fact or law may be involved in it. "The case of the bank is, we think, a very strong case of Opinion of the Court. this description. The charter of incorporation not only creates it, but gives it every faculty which it possesses. The power to acquire rights of any description, to transact business of any description, to make contracts of any description, to sue on those contracts, is given and measured by its charter, and that charter is a law of the United States. This being can acquire no right, make no contract, bring no suit which is not authorized by a law of the United States. It is not only itself the mere creature of a law, but all its actions and all its rights are dependent on the same law. Can a being, thus constituted, have a case which does not arise literally as well as substantially under the law? Take the case of a contract, which as the strongest against the bank. put "When a bank sues, the first question which presents itself, and which lies at the foundation of the cause, is, has this legal entity a right to sue? Has it a right to come, not into this court particularly, but into any court? This depends on a law of the United States. The next question is, has this being a right to make this particular contract? If this question be decided in the negative, the cause is determined against the plaintiff; and this question, too, depends entirely on a law of the United States. These are important questions, and they exist in every possible case. "The question forms an original ingredient in every cause. Whether it be in fact relied on or not, in the defence, it is still a part of the cause, and may be relied on. The right of the plaintiff to sue cannot depend on the defence which the defendant may choose to set up. His right to sue is anterior to that defence, and must depend on the state of things when the action is brought. The questions which the case involved, then, must determine its character, whether those questions be made in the cause or not." pages 823, 824. "It is said that a clear distinction exists between the party and the cause: that the party may originate under a law with which the cause has no connection; and that Congress may, with the same propriety, give a naturalized citizen, who is the mere creature of law, a right to sue in the courts of the United States, as give that right to the bank. Opinion of the Court. "This distinction is not denied; and if the act of Congress was a simple act of incorporation, and contained nothing more, it might be entitled to great consideration. But the act does not stop with incorporating the bank. It proceeds to bestow upon the being it has made all the faculties and capacities which that being possesses. Every act of the bank grows out of this law, and is tested by it. To use the language of the Constitution, every act of the bank arises out of this law." page 827. If the case of Osborn v. The Bank of the United States, is to be adhered to as a sound exposition of the Constitution, there is no escape from the conclusion that these suits against the plaintiffs in error, considering the said plaintiffs as corporations created by and organized under the acts of Congress referred to in the several petitions for removal in these cases, were and are suits arising under the laws of the United States. An examination of those acts of Congress shows that the corporations now before us, not only derive their existence, but their powers, their functions, their. duties, and a large portion of their resources, from those acts, and, by virtue thereof sustain important relations to the Government of the United States. A question is made in the cases coming from Kansas about the constitution of the company owning and controlling the line of railroad running through that State. The allegations of the petition for removal in the Myers case (and the others are substantially the same) are: That on February 1, 1880, pursuant to § 16 of the Act of Congress of July 1, 1862, and 16 of the act of July 2, 1864, the Kansas Pacific Railway Company, a corporation created by the territorial legislature of Kansas, and organized under the laws of said Territory, and the Denver Pacific Railway and Telegraph Company, a corporation created and organized under the laws of the Territory of Colorado, both of which companies are mentioned in the said acts of Congress, and their roads by said acts made a part of the Pacific Railroad system, were by agreement consolidated with the Union Pacific Railroad Company, and said consolidated company assumed and adopted the name of The |