The Great Speeches and Orations of Daniel Webster: With an Essay on Daniel Webster as a Master of English StyleWebster, Daniel
History
The Great Speeches and Orations of Daniel Webster: With an Essay on Daniel Webster as a Master of English Style
Webster, Daniel
Speeches, addresses, etc., American; United States -- Politics and government -- 1815-1861; Webster, Daniel, 1782-1852
By these acts, then, an exclusive right is given to Livingston and
Fulton to use steam navigation on all the waters of New York, for thirty
years from 1808.
It is not necessary to recite the several conveyances and agreements,
stated in the record, by which Ogden, the plaintiff below, derives title
under Livingston and Fulton to the exclusive use of part of these waters
for steam navigation.
The appellant being owner of a steamboat, and being found navigating the
waters between New Jersey and the city of New York, over which waters
Ogden, the plaintiff below, claims an exclusive right, under Livingston
and Fulton, this bill was filed against him by Ogden, in October, 1818,
and an injunction granted, restraining him from such use of his boat.
This injunction was made perpetual, on the final hearing of the cause,
in the Court of Chancery; and the decree of the Chancellor has been duly
affirmed in the Court of Errors. The right, therefore, which the
plaintiff below asserts, to have and maintain his injunction, depends
obviously on the general validity of the New York laws, and especially
on their force and operation as against the right set up by the
defendant. This right he states in his answer to be, that he is a
citizen of New Jersey, and owner of the steamboat in question; that the
boat is a vessel of more than twenty tons burden, duly enrolled and
licensed for carrying on the coasting trade, and intended to be employed
by him in that trade, between Elizabethtown, in New Jersey, and the city
of New York; and that it was actually employed in navigating between
those places at the time of, and until notice of, the injunction from
the Court of Chancery was served on him.
On these pleadings the substantial question is raised, Are these laws
such as the legislature of New York has a right to pass? If so, do they,
secondly, in their operation, interfere with any right enjoyed under the
Constitution and laws of the United States, and are they therefore void,
as far as such interference extends?
It may be well to state again their general purport and effect, and the
purport and effect of the other State laws which have been enacted by
way of retaliation.
A steam-vessel, of any description, going to New York, is forfeited to
the representatives of Livingston and Fulton, unless she have their
license. Going from New York or elsewhere to Connecticut, she is
prohibited from entering the waters of that State if she have such
license.
If the representatives of Livingston and Fulton in New York carry into
effect, by judicial process, the provision of the New York laws, against
any citizen of New Jersey, they expose themselves to a statute action in
New Jersey for all damages, and treble costs.
The New York laws extend to all steam-vessels; to steam frigates, steam
ferry-boats, and all intermediate classes. They extend to public as well
as private ships; and to vessels employed in foreign commerce, as well
as to those employed in the coasting trade.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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