Noah Haynes Swayne

“ A State law may give a substantial right of such a character that where there is no impediment arising from the residence of the parties, the right may be enforced in the proper Federal tribunal whether it be a court of equity, of admiralty, or of common law. The statute in such cases does not confer the jurisdiction. That exists already, and it is invoked to give effect to the right by applying the appropriate remedy. This principle may be laid down as axiomatic in our National jurisprudence. A party forfeits nothing by going into a federal tribunal. ”

“ This was the first Congress which sat under the Constitution, and many of its members were members of the Convention which framed that instrument. The act of March 2d, 1837, [5] declares that a vessel, approaching or leaving a port situate upon waters which are the boundary between two States, may employ a pilot licensed by either of such States, 'any law, usage, or custom to the contrary notwithstanding.' The act of August 30th, 1852, [6] regulates the appointment of pilots upon certain steamboats, and is a complete system as to the class of vessels to which it applies. ”

“ In that case it was held that the State of Pennsylvania might competently authorize a bridge to be built across the Schuylkill River in that city, but that Congress, in the exercise of its paramount power, might require it to be removed, and prohibit and punish the erection of like structures, whenever it was deemed expedient to do so. It is the exercise, and not the existence, of the power that is effectual and exclusive.
The Constitution took effect on the first Wednesday of March, 1789. Pilot laws existed in several of the States at that time, and were subsequently enacted in others. ”