Benjamin Robbins Curtis

“ Now, a pilot, so far as respects the navigation of the vessel in that part of the voyage which is his pilotage-ground, is the temporary master charged with the safety of the vessel and cargo, and of the lives of those on board, and intrusted with the command of the crew. ”

“ They belong to the same conservative power which undertakes to guide the track of the vessel over the rocks or shallows of a coast, or river; which directs her mooring or her position in port, for the safety of life and property, whether in reference to herself or to other vessels, their cargoes and crews, which for security against pestilence subjects vessels to quarantine, and may order the total destruction of the cargoes they contain. This is a power which is deemed indispensable to the safety and existence of every community. ”

“ The power and the practice of enacting pilot-laws, which has been exercised by the states from the very origin of their existence, although it is one in some degree connected with commercial intercourse, does not come essentially and regularly within that power of commercial regulation vested by the Constitution in Congress, and which by the Constitution must, when exercised by Congress, be enforced with perfect equality, and without any kind of discrimination, local or otherwise in its application. ”

“ The license can be granted only to vessels already enrolled, if they be of the burden of twenty tons and upwards, and requires no circumstances essential to the American character. 'The object of the license, then, cannot be to ascertain the character of the vessel, but to do what it professes do to;-that is, to give permission to a vessel, already proved by her enrolment to be American, to carry on the coasting trade.' Gibbons v. Ogden, 9 Wheat., 214. ”

“ Thus the very section of the act of 1803, now under consideration, does not apply to coasting vessels of less burden than seventy-five tons, not to those bound to, or sailing from, a port in the river Delaware. The purpose of the law being to cause masters of such vessels as generally need a pilot, to employ one, and to secure to the pilots a fair remuneration for cruising in search of vessels, or waiting for employment in port, there is an obvious propriety in having reference to the number, size, and nature of employment of vessels frequenting the port ”

“ This provision of the Constitution was intended to operate upon subjects actually existing and well understood when the Constitution was formed. Imposts and duties on imports, exports, and tonnage were then known to the commerce of a civilized world to be as distinct from fees and charges for pilotage, and from the penalties by which commercial states enforced their pilot-laws, as they were from charges for wharfage or towage, or any other local port-charges for services rendered to vessels or cargoes ”

“ If to give the right, it was to enter and navigate the ports and harbors of the United States, at a less tonnage-duty, and without the necessity of entry on every voyage. If it was to limit a preexisting right to trade, it licensed such trade at less than the ordinary tonnage-duties, and relieved from the necessity of entry at every voyage, as required of all other vessels. ”

“ To hold that pilotage fees and penalties demanded and received during that time, have been illegally exacted, under color of void laws, would work an amount of mischief which a clear conviction of constitutional duty, if entertained, must force us to occasion, but which could be viewed by no just mind without deep regret. ”

“ And a majority of the court are of opinion, that a regulation of pilots is a regulation of commerce, within the grant to Congress of the commercial power, contained in the third clause of the eighth section of the first article of the Constitution. ”

“ The law does not (from whatever fountain of power derived) give a preference to the ports of one state over those of another; it limits the demand to those cases where the labor, skill, and risk of the pilot is really required; nor would such preference, if it exist, render the residue of the law invalid.-3d. The sum demanded is not a duty which vessels, bound to or from one state to another, are obliged to pay.
V. Nor does the act of Congress (18th Feb. 1793, coasting license; the Consul, No. 100) conflict with the law in question. ”

“ This act of Congress was passed by virtue of the power to regulate commerce, and declares the terms upon which vessels shall be entitled to a coasting license.
The license gives a right to trade, and does not merely confer the American character. ”

“ Nor is there any such constitutional obligation upon the states, in the absence of legislation by Congress, to legislate uniformly as to duties, imposts, or excises, (as is submitted by brief of plaintiff in error.) III. Nor to the first and the second clause of the 10th section, art. 1. (No state shall, without the consent of Congress, lay any imposts or duties on imports or exports, &c., or of tonnage.)
If the law in question does regulate commerce at all, it is contended, that it does so by the means specified in these clauses. ”

“ The question is one of power merely, and if the sum demanded is justly within its limit, and not an attempted evasion, under its color, the purpose to which it is applied, cannot make it more or less constitutional. If it was directed to be paid to the pilot offering his services, or the crew of his boat, it would not be more or less a valid enactment. ”

“ And if the master of any such ship or vessel shall refuse or neglect to take a pilot, the master, owner or consignee of such vessel shall forfeit and pay to the warden aforesaid, a sum equal to the half-pilotage of such ship or vessel, to the use of the Society for the Relief, &c., to be recovered as pilotage in the manner hereinafter directed: Provided always, that where it shall appear to the warden that, in case of an inward-bound vessel, a pilot did not offer before she had reached Reedy Island ”

“ It is averred to do so, inasmuch as the act of Pennsylvania is contended to be a regulation of commerce, and that by the law relative to coasting vessels, Congress has legislated upon and regulated their navigation, and by such legislation has exempted them from the sum demanded. ”

“ Pennsylvania: Act Province of Pennsylvania, 6 Geo., 3, ch. 5, passed Feb. 8, 1766.
(Copy of material sections annexed, No. 2) . Continued and supplied in some details by intervening acts, in all of which provision is made for payment in case no pilot is taken, an act of 29th March, 1803. (The law in question) . By state judicial decisions it is also so regarded as part of a system for the regulation of pilots. And the laws have been acted upon as a valid exercise of state power, either inherent or concurrent, or to which Congress had given consent. Commonwealth v. Ricketson, 5 Metc. (Mass.) ”