Nathan Clifford

“ Less than fifty years ago in admiralty, the claim of the salvor vessel was of but little worth, as compared with that of men salvors. Now keeping pace with the times, and their changed modes of salvage, the steamer is the real salvor, and has the lion's share of the reward. And the larger, stauncher and more powerful the steamer, the more liberal the reward; though the danger to such a vessel is reduced by her superior qualities to a minimum. The reason is, that society may be encouraged to give its best resources to the succor of life and property in distress at sea. ”

“ An inventor is at liberty when he has made an invention, if it consists of several distinct, effective, new devices, which as an aggregate, may constitute, in his judgment, the best machine in the world, but of which certain of the parts may be omitted, and it still be an effective, new, and useful machine-I say that the inventor is at liberty, in taking out his patent, to protect himself against that species of innovation by claiming the separate, new, and useful parts of the machine by themselves. ”

“ Congress has power to borrow money on the credit of the United States, and the people, by making the government supreme, have shielded its action in the exercise of that power from every species of unfriendly State legislation. Undoubtedly the States may tax all subjects over which the sovereign power of the State extends, but they are not authorized to tax the instruments of the Federal government nor the means employed by Congress to carry into effect the enumerated powers of the Constitution, or any other power vested by the fundamental law in the government of the United States. ”

“ To commit a fault is to violate some statute, some rule, some custom, and not merely to err.
The propeller violated no law, rule, or custom. She conducted herself with ordinary care, skill, and judgment, under the then circumstances, and with reference to appearances which should then have guided her.
That she was well officered, that her watch was perfect, her master, second mate, wheelsman, lookout, and engineer at their places, is not denied. That they were each and all competent is not questioned. That they saw the schooner about one and a half or two miles off is shown. ”

“ The savings banks have no sooner availed themselves of this privilege, and invested largely in this property, than the State demands of them a tax of three-fourths of one per cent. per annum on all their deposits!
What matters it to either the savings banks or the United States what the theory of the tax is; whether it be on franchise or deposits? The one knows that if it had not the deposits it would not have the tax. The other that they can borrow money no better under one mode of taxation than under the other. ”

“ Against any such forfeiture the government has deliberately set its face. She has pledged herself to her loyal citizens in every form by which a government can express its deliberate purpose,-by legislative enactments, executive proclamations, judicial decisions, the consistent management of war,-that this conflict has been waged for the protection, and not the destruction, of those rights. This claimant alike with every other true citizen has the right to demand, as he does now demand, that the government shall make good her pledges by according to him the full measure of his rights. ”

“ Neither an officer nor an agent can properly be said to have acted under color of a law which neither gave him nor any other person authority to do the act in question, nor can an officer be said to have acted under the authority of his office unless he has some appearance of right to it and is in possession and acting in that capacity, as the acts of a mere intruder or usurper of an office, without any colorable title, are undoubtedly wholly void both as to individuals and the public. ”

“ Where there is neither accident nor mistake, misrepresentation nor fraud, there is no jurisdiction in equity to afford relief to a party who has lost his remedy at law through mere ignorance of a fact, the knowledge of which might have been obtained by due diligence and inquiry, or by a bill of discovery. ”

“ Private property, the Constitution provides, shall not be taken for public use without just compensation, and it is clear that there are few safeguards ordained in the fundamental law against oppression and the exercise of arbitrary power of more ancient origin or of greater value to the citizen, as the provision for compensation, except in certain extreme cases, is a condition precedent annexed to the right of the government to deprive the owner of his property without his consent. ”

“ When we look back upon events that have happened, we stand in a different position; we behold with a clearer vision as we embrace within our glance the beginning and the end, the act and the consequences. But the man who is doing the act may contemplate a very different result. ”

“ The vast advantages which vessels navigated by steam have over sailing-vessels, is their capacity to turn suddenly, and most of all to stop at once; and this, with all their tremendous power, and the effect of a collision with them, has led courts to hold, almost as an irrebuttable presumption, that when, on a clear night, in open sea, a collision takes place between a steamer and a sailing-vessel the fault must be with the steamer ”

“ Doubtless, an invention may be good though the subject of it consists in the discovery of some principle of science or property of matter, never before known or used, by which some new and useful result is obtained, and such an invention or discovery may be the subject of a valid patent without including in the claim any new arrangement of machinery to accomplish the object, provided the inventor describes, as required in the patent law, the method, process, or means of applying the invention to practical use and of obtaining the described new and useful result. ”

“ Looking at the whole circumstances of the collision, it is vain for the respondents to suppose that this court can hold that it was the result of inevitable accident. Where the collision occurs exclusively from natural causes, and without any negligence or fault either on the part of the owners of the respective vessels, or of those intrusted with their control and management, the rule of law is, that the loss must rest where it fell, on the principle that no one is responsible for such an accident, if it was produced by causes over which human agency could exercise no control. ”

“ By the law of England the right of action depends entirely upon the question between whom the relation of principal and agent, client and attorney, subsists. Nothing more decisive of the question need be sought; and we have the authority of that great magistrate to say that it is impossible to support, by a single case in that country, so extraordinary a proposition as that persons who were not, by themselves or their agents, employers of law agents to do an act, could have remedy against such agents for the negligent performance of it. ”

“ Complete conquest, by whatever mode it may be perfected, carries with it all the rights of the former government, or in other words, the conqueror, by the completion of his conquest, becomes the absolute owner of the property conquered from the enemy, nation, or state. His rights are no longer limited to mere occupation of what he has taken into his actual possession, but they extend to all the property and rights of the conquered state, including even debts as well as personal and real property. ”

“ In my opinion an adversary suit against an insolvent person may be prosecuted to judgment up to the very moment of bankruptcy. The diligent debtor cannot be deterred from such prosecution by a knowledge that his debtor is insolvent, or by any apprehensions that bankrupt proceedings may be in contemplation. He is not bound, himself, to petition against his debtor in bankruptcy, nor does the neglect of his debtor to file such a petition deprive him of his fairly-gained preference, unless complicity between them can be shown, of which in my opinion there was no evidence in this case. ”

“ Taxes levied by a State upon ships and vessels owned by the citizens of the State as property, based on a valuation of the same as property, are not within the prohibition of the Constitution, but it is equally clear and undeniable that taxes levied by a State upon ships and vessels as instruments of commerce and navigation are within that clause of the instrument which prohibits the States from levying any duty of tonnage, without the consent of Congress ”

“ If the debtor opposed the levy-tried his utmost to prevent it-was wholly unwilling that his property should be taken by one creditor while the others were left unpaid; if the execution was sprung upon him by surprise, and he fought the levy and sale until every expedient of opposition was exhausted, it is unreasonable to say that he fraudulently procured the seizure to be made, and equally unreasonable to allege that the bank could have united with him in a fraud which he never committed. ”

“ Parsons, established rules and known usages should be carefully followed; for every vessel has a right to expect that every other vessel will regard them, but not where they will, from peculiar circumstances, certainly cause danger; as if a vessel, near a rock or shore, must strike it by putting her helm to port, which the general rule might require: and he adds, that 'no vessel is justified, by pertinacious adherence to a rule, for getting into collision with a ship which she might have avoided;' which is the exact case before the court. ”

“ Undoubtedly an inventor may abandon his invention, and surrender or dedicate it to the public; but mere forbearance to apply for a patent during the progress of experiments, and until the party has perfected his invention and tested its value by actual practice, affords no just grounds for any such presumption. ”

“ Federal judicial power, beyond all doubt, has its origin in the Constitution, but the organization of the system and the distribution of the subjects of jurisdiction among such inferior courts as Congress may from time to time ordain and establish, within the scope of the judicial power, always have been, and of right must be the work of the Congress. ”

“ Indeed, nothing can be clearer, both upon principle and authority, than the doctrine that the liability of a surety is not to be extended by implication beyond the terms of his contract. To the extent, and in the manner, and under the circumstances pointed out in his obligation, he is bound, and no farther. He has a right to stand upon the very terms of his contract, and if he does not assent to any variation of it, and a variation is made, it is fatal. ”

“ The distinction between law and equity is as naked and as broad as ever. To entitle the plaintiff to an equitable interposition of the court, he must show a proper case for the interference of a court of chancery, and one in which he has no adequate or complete relief at law. The judgment vesting him with the logal title shows that he has a complete, appropriate, and ample remedy at law by ejectment. ”

“ In war, says Chancellor Kent, every individual of the one nation must acknowledge every individual of the other nation as his own enemy, because the enemy of his country. It reaches to intercourse, transfer or removal of property, to all negotiation and contracts, to all communication, to all locomotive intercourse, to a state of utter occlusion to any intercourse but one of open hostility, and to any meeting but in actual combat. ”

“ In view of all this-so easily to be apprehended by the court, and so well known to opposing counsel-it cannot be affirmed that it was certainly even so much as expected by all that the education was to be forever at Canonsburg. And the absence from the plan of endowment and the certificates given under it of any provision that it should be there, raises a probability that the matter of union was in the minds of both parties concerned. But be that as it may, an expectation is not of necessity a contract, nor the disappointment of one, an infringement of the Constitution. ”

“ Whenever the terms in which a power is granted to Congress, or the nature of the power, requires that it should be exercised exclusively by Congress, the subject is as completely taken from the State legislatures as if they had been expressly forbidden to exercise the power. ”

“ Common justice requires the enforcement of that rule, as if the contractor does the thing which he is employed to do the employer is as responsible for the thing as if he had done it himself, but if the act which is the subject of complaint is purely collateral to the matter contracted to be done, and arises indirectly in the course of the performance of the work, the employer is not liable, because he never authorized the work to be done. ”

“ Power to tax its citizens or subjects in some form is an attribute of every government, residing in it as part of itself; and hence it follows that the power to tax may be exercised at the same time upon the same objects of private property by the State and by the United States, without inconsistency or repugnancy. ”

“ Courts cannot make contracts for parties; and if parties understandingly contract to adjust a controversy between them in a particular way, and actally execute the contract, they are both bound to regard the controversy as at an end.
Taken as a whole, the findings of the court below show beyond all doubt that the decedent, voluntarily and with a full knowledge of all the circumstances, elected to accept payment of the treasury-notes in the manner proposed by the secretary, and that the surrender of the same to the United States was absolute and unconditional. ”

“ All that the Federal authority can do in such a case is to see that the States do not, under cover of this power, invade the sphere of Federal sovereignty, and obstruct or impede the exercise of any authority which the Constitution has confided to the United States, or deprive any citizen of rights guaranteed by the Constitution. ”

“ The question to be now determined is, shall these powerful corporate organizations be recognized in admiralty on the same footing with individual salvors, and like them be rewarded according to the merit of the service performed? Or, shall they be put under a sort of outlawry, as unworthy of protection, and thus be hunted out of existence? They cannot exist if shut down to the pay of mere work and labor. Shall life and property on the navigable waters be deprived of their best reliance, and be cast back for succor on the old inefficient resource of casual help from individuals? ”

“ Proof of success, to some extent, is as essential as proof of service, for if the property is not saved, or if it perishes, or, in case of capture, if it is not retaken, no compensation will be allowed. Compensation as salvage is not viewed by the admiralty courts merely as pay on the principle of quantum meruit or as a remuneration pro opere et labore, but as a reward given for perilous services voluntarily rendered, and as an inducement to mariners to embark in such dangerous enterprises to save life and property. ”

“ Whenever the parties to a suit, and the subject-matter in controversy between them, are within the regular jurisdiction of a court of equity, the decree of that court is to every intent as binding as would be the judgment of a court of law. ”

“ The experience of others is rarely a guide to an embarrassed man, and he goes on with the hope of relief, even against hope. To infer, therefore, a design to give a preference to a favored creditor, and in the immediate expectation of bankruptcy, from the mere fact of insolvency, is by no means a certain inference nor such as the jury would be necessarily bound to draw from the debtor's knowledge of his insolvency. ”

“ A party who might think he could make a machine substantially useful for his purpose by omitting these devices, and supplying their places by old devices, having different operation and character, would be at liberty to do so, and thus, practically, a large benefit, or perhaps the whole benefit that is due the inventor might be lost. I say the patent law, therefore, permits the inventor not only to patent the machine as an aggregate, but to patent the new devices which enter into it, so that another may not avail himself of his ingenuity in that respect. ”

“ Other nations followed with a similar declaration or by silent acquiescence; and in speaking of that fact this court say, that a citizen of a foreign State, in view of such a recognition, is estopped to deny the existence of a war, with all its consequences as regards neutrals. They cannot ask a court to affect a technical ignorance of the existence of a war which all the world acknowledges to be the greatest civil war of the human race, and thus cripple the arm of the government and paralyze its power. ”

“ Whoever discovers that a certain useful result will be produced in any art, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter by the use of certain means is entitled to a patent for his invention, provided he specifies the means he uses in a manner so full and exact that any one skilled in the science to which it appertains can, by using the means he specifies, without any addition to or subtraction from the described means, produce precisely the result he describes. ”

“ But certainly a controversy between citizens of different States is none the less a controversy between citizens of different States because others are also parties to it. Therefore to confine the Federal jurisdiction to cases wherein the controversy is between citizens of different States exclusively, is to interpolate into the Constitution a word not placed there by those who ordained it, and one which materially limits and controls its express provisions. ”

“ Contributing nothing to 'the reparation of injury, the re-establishment of right, and the restoration of order,' such action on the part of government would of itself be an injury to the citizen, a palpable denial of his common and constitutional right, and the sure promoter of disorder and discontent. ”

“ Unless exempted in terms which amount to a contract, the privileges and franchises of a private corporation are as much the legitimate subject of taxation as any other property of the citizens which is within the sovereign power of the State. ”

“ Should the powerful steamer of the libellants perform in the best manner a great salvage service, for which she had been at large cost expressly built and equipped, and at all times maintained in a state of the highest efficiency, could it be said, that because she was the property of a corporation, she must be denied a salvage compensation, or cut down to one which is no better than pay for work and labor? ”

“ And in order that the Federal courts may have jurisdiction, the suit, if the interpretation of the Constitution is to be consistent with the interpretation already and repeatedly given to the Judiciary Act, must be between citizens of one State, and no one else, on the one side, and citizens of other States, and no one else, on the other side.
We have not a separated controversy with any of the three defendants; no more than in a suit against a corporation we should have a controversy with each one of the corporators. ”