Joseph P. Bradley

“ It cannot be supposed that the law authorizes exorbitant charges to be made; but whether the charges exacted are exorbitant or not can only be determined by that law. It is clear, therefore, that the complainant, in filing its bill in the United States court on the ground that the wharfage complained of is in violation of the constitution or laws of the United States, has totally misconceived its rights and the proper means of obtaining redress. Unless it has some other ground for coming into the federal court it must seek redress in the state courts ”

“ But whether a charge imposed is a charge of wharfage or a duty of tonnage, must be determined by the terms of the ordinance or regulation which imposes it. They are not the same thing; a duty of tonnage is a charge for the privilege of entering, or trading, or lying in, a port or harbor; wharfage is a charge for the use of a wharf. Exorbitant wharfage may have a similar effect as a burden on commerce as a duty of tonnage has ”

“ As no act of congress has been passed for the regulation of wharfage, and as there is nothin the constitution to prevent the states from regulating it, so long as congress sees fit to abstain from action on the subject, our conclusion is that it is entirely within the domain and subject to the operation of the state laws. ”

“ It is believed that no case can be found in which state laws, or regulations under state authority, on subjects of a local nature, have been set aside on the ground of repugnance to the power of regulating commerce given to congress, unless it has appeared that they were contrary to some express provision of the constitution, or to some act of congress, or that they amounted to an assumption of power exclusively conferred upon congress. ”

“ The charge of the bill is only 'that under and by virtue of said ordinance the city of Parkersburg has, ever since the time of organization of your orator, required your orator, its agents, and servants, to pay to it the charges provided in said ordinance for all steam-boats owned or controlled by your orator that have discharged or received freight or passengers, or landed at its said wharf.'
There is no complaint that wharfage has been exacted when the complainant's vessels have merely anchored in the stream, or have moored at any other place than the city's wharf ”

“ It is also obvious that since a wharf is property, and wharfage is a charge or rent for its temporary use, the question whether the owner derives more or less revenue from it, or whether more or less than the cost of building and maintaining it, or what disposition he makes of such revenue, can in no way concern those who make use of the wharf and are required to pay the regular charges therefor ”

“ Sometimes it may happen that the depth of water in the river, or intervening vessels lying at the wharf, will not allow a vessel to get close along-side of the wharf, and yet she may desire to connect with it in some manner, by planks or by the deck of an intervening boat, barge, or float, so as to discharge or receive freight and passengers upon or from the wharf. ”

“ So, when a law of New York required all vessels of a certain class, which should enter the port of New York, or load or unload, or make fast to any wharf therein, to pay a certain rate per ton, this was held to be an unconstitutional imposition, because it applied to all vessels, whether they used a wharf or not. Inman Steam-ship Co. v. Tinker, 94 U.S. 238. All these were clear cases of duty on tonnage as distinguished from wharfage; and the terms of the ordinances and laws in question were very different from those of the ordinance now under consideration. ”

“ The whole phrase should be taken together, and, thus read, it is evidently confined to vessels using or intending to use the wharf. The passage consists of two distinct clauses: (1) 'Every steam-boat that may discharge or receive freight at any public landing or wharf;' (2) 'or that may land on or anchor at or in front of any public landing or wharf for the purpose of discharging or receiving freight.' The last clause as well as the first evidently points to those vessels only which land or anchor at or before a wharf for the purpose of using it. ”

“ The Wheeling bridge, as originally constructed, presented a complete obstacle to the passage of steam-boats with high chimneys, such as navigated the Ohio river to and from Pittsburgh; and hence presented a case of interference with navigation analogous to that of the exclusive monopoly granted to Fulton and Livingston by the state of New York, which was the ground of complaint in the case of Gibbons v. Ogden. But, besides this, it was a case in which this court exercised its original jurisdiction by reason of the character of the parties, a state being the complainant in the suit ”

“ Though the use of public wharves may be regulated by congress as a part of the commercial power, it certainly does not belong to that class of subjects which are in their nature national, requiring a single uniform rule ”