The federal question which it is claimed arises on this record is whether the supreme court of Missouri in its judgment gave 'full faith and credit' 'to the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings' of Illinois.
The Wiggins Ferry Company was incorporated by the state of Illinois in 1853, and given the exclusive and perpetual right of maintaining and operating a ferry across the Mississippi river between its own lands, in East St. Louis, on the Illinois side, and St. Louis, in Missouri. It owned Bloody island, and substantially controlled two miles and a half of ferry landing on the Illinois shore. The Chicago & Alton Railroad Company is likewise an Illinois corporation, having authority to own and operate a railroad between Chicago and Bloody island, opposite the city of St. Louis, and to 'take, use, and make arrangements for the transportation of freight and passengers carried, or to be carried, upon said railroad, or otherwise, * * * to St. Louis, Missouri, and for this purpose to construct, own, and use such boat or boats as may be necessary.' The Alton & St. Louis Railroad Company was also an Illinois railroad corporation, authorized to construct and operate a railroad from Alton, Illinois, to any point opposite St. Louis. On the twenty-eighth of April, 1864, this company entered into a contract with the Wiggins Ferry Company, by which, among other things, the ferry company agreed 'to furnish and maintain good and convenient wharf-boats and steam ferry-boats to do with promptness and dispatch all the ferrying required for the transit of passengers and freight coming from or going to said railroad (or the assignee hereinafter mentioned) over the river,' at reasonable rates of ferriage; and the railroad company covenanted and agreed that it would 'always employ the said ferry to transport across the said river all persons and property which may be taken across the said river, either way, to or from the Illinois shore, either for the purpose of being transported on said railroad, or having been brought to the said River Mississippi upon said railroad; so that the said ferry company, its legal representatives or assigns, owners of the said ferry, shall have the profits of the transportation of all such passengers, persons, and property taken across said river either way by said railroad company; and that no other than the Wiggins Ferry shall ever, at any time, be employed by the said party of the second part, or the assignee herein mentioned, to cross any passengers or freight coming or going on said road.' And it was also agreed and understood that the Alton & St. Louis Company should have the right to transfer and assign the agreement to the Chicago & Alton Company, in which event all the covenants, stipulations, and agreements therein contained should be as binding on the said Chicago & Alton Company as on the Alton & St. Louis Company. On the same day that the contract was entered into the Alton & St. Louis Company transferred to the Chicago & Alton Company all its right, title, and interest in and to the lands, tenements, and easements mentioned therein, and the Chicago & Alton Company became bound to the ferry company in all respects the same as the Alton & St. Louis Company was.