on courts of
justice to ascribe an innocent and honest meaning to all language that
will possibly bear an innocent and honest meaning. If courts of justice
could depart from this rule for the purpose of upholding what was
contrary to natural right, and could employ their ingenuity in spying
out some implied or inferred authority, for sanctioning what was in
itself dishonest or unjust, when such was not the _necessary_ meaning of
the language used, there could be no security whatever for the honest
administration of honest laws, or the honest fulfilment of men's honest
contracts. Nearly all language, on the meaning of which courts
adjudicate, would be liable, at the caprice of the court, to be
perverted from the furtherance of honest, to the support of dishonest
purposes. Judges could construe statutes and contracts in favor of
justice or injustice, as their own pleasure might dictate.

Another reason of the rules, is, that as governments have, and can have
no legitimate objects or powers opposed to justice and natural right, it
would be treason to all the legitimate purposes of government, for the
judiciary to give any other than an honest and innocent meaning to any
language, that would bear such a construction.

The same reasons that forbid the allowance of any unnecessary
implication or inference in favor of a wrong, in the construction of a
statute, forbids also the introduction of any _extraneous or historical_
evidence to prove that the intentions of the legislature were to
sanction or authorize a wrong.

The same rules of construction, that apply to statutes, apply also to
all those private contracts between man and man, _which courts actually
enforce_. But as it is both the right and the duty of courts to
invalidate altogether such private contracts as are inconsistent with
justice, they will admit evidence exterior to their words, _if offered
by a defendant for the purpose of invalidating them_. At the same time,
a plaintiff, or party that wishes to set up a contract, or that claims
its fulfilment, will not be allowed to offer any evidence exterior to
its words, to prove that the contract is contrary to justice--because,
if his evidence were admitted, it would not make his unjust claim a
legal one; but only invalidate it altogether. But as courts do not claim
the right of invalidating statutes and constitutions, they will not
admit evidence, exterior to their language, to give them such a
meaning, that they