Edward Douglass White

“ 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. ”

“ The purpose of congress to submit the incidental power to sell to the dominion of state authority should not, without the clearest implication, be held to imply the purpose of subjecting to state laws a contract which, in its very object and nature, was not susceptible of such regulation even if the constitutional right to do so existed, as to which no opinion is expressed. ”

“ If the construction claimed be upheld, it would be in the power, of each state to compel every interstate commerce train to stop before crossing its borders, and discharge its freight, lest by crossing the line it might carry within the state merchandise of the character named covered by the inhibitions of a state statute. ”

“ The Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Company was, in 1891, a common carrier, incorporated under the law of Illinois, and operated among others, a line of railway from Dallas, Ill., to Burlington, Iowa, and beyond said point. The Burlington & Western Railway Company was, at the same date, a common carrier, incorporated under the law of Iowa, and operated a line of railway from Burlington, Iowa, to Oskaloosa, in that state, with stations at intervening points, one of which was Brighton, in Washington county. ”

“ Uniformity in the regulations by which he is to be governed from one end to the other of his route is a necessity in his business, and, to secure it, congress, which is untrammeled by state lines, has been invested with the exclusive legislative power of determining what such regulations shall be. ”

“ Light is thrown upon the purpose and spirit of the act by another consideration. The Bowman Case was decided in 1888, the opinion in Leisy v. Hardin was announced in April, 1890, and the act under consideration was approved August 8, 1890. Considering these dates, it is reasonable to infer that the provisions of the act were intended by congress to cause the legislative authority of the respective states to attach to intoxicating liquors coming into the states by an interstate shipment, only after the consummation of the shipment, but before the sale of the merchandise ”

“ The statute now under consideration, in our opinion, occupies that position. It does not act upon the business through the local instruments to be employed after coming within the state, but directly upon the business as it comes into the state from without or goes out from within. ”