David Josiah Brewer,
Louisville v. State of Mississippi…
“ Commerce cannot flourish in the midst of such embarrassments. No carrier of passengers can conduct his business with satisfaction to himself, or comfort to those employing him, if on one side of a state line his passengers, both white and colored, must be permitted to occupy the same cabin, and on the other be kept separate. ”
David Josiah Brewer,
Louisville v. State of Mississippi…
“ Obviously, whether interstate passengers of one race should, in any portion of their journey, be compelled to share their cabin accommodations with passengers of another race, was a question of interstate commerce, and to be determined by congress alone. In this case, the supreme court of Mississippi held that the statute applied solely to commerce within the state; and that construction, being the construction of the statute of the state by its highest court, must be accepted as conclusive here. ”
David Josiah Brewer,
Louisville v. State of Mississippi…
“ A passenger in the cabin set apart for the use of whites without the state must, when the boat comes within, share the accommodations of that cabin with such colored persons as may come on board afterwards, if the law is enforced. It was to meet just such a case that the commercial clause in the constitution was adopted. The river Mississippi passes through or along the borders of ten different states, and its tributaries reach many more. The commerce upon these waters is immense, and its regulation clearly a matter of national concern. ”
