Samuel Freeman Miller

“ It is true, not much is said about protecting the ship-owner. But he is the man who reaps the profit from the transaction, who has the means to protect himself, and knows well how to do it, and whose obligations in the premises need the aid of the statute for their enforcement. The sum demanded of him is not, therefore, strictly speaking, a tax or duty within the meaning of the constitution. The money thus raised, though paid into the treasury, is appropriated in advance to the uses of the statute, and does not go to the general support of the government. ”

“ The court then, referring to the transportation of passengers from European ports to those of the United States, says: 'It has become a part of our commerce with foreign nations, of vast interest to this country as well as to the immigrants who come among us, to find a welcome and a home within our borders.' 'Is the regulation of this great system a regulation of commerce? ”

“ The constitution of the United States places such provisions as these in the same category as other laws of congress by its declaration that 'this constitution and the laws made in pursuance thereof, and all treaties made or which shall be made under authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land.' A treaty, then, is a law of the land as an act of congress is, whenever its provisions prescribe a rule by which the rights of the private citizen or subject may be determined. ”

“ But, as regards the purpose of the immigration act to raise a fund for the sick, the poor, and the helpless immigrant, children are as likely to require its aid as adults, probably more so. They are certainly within the definition of the word 'passenger,' when otherwise within the purview of the act. ”

“ The other errors assigned, however numerous or in whatever language presented, all rest on the proposition that the act of congress requiring the collector to demand and receive from the master, owner, or consignee of each vessel arriving from a foreign port, 50 cents for every passenger whom he brings into a port of the United States who is not a citizen, is without warrant in the constitution and is void. ”

“ The supposed exception of this class of passengers does not arise out of any language found in this act to regulate immigration, nor any policy on which it is founded, but it is based by counsel on a provision of an act approved one day earlier than this, entitled 'An act to regulate the carriage of passengers by sea.' This provision limits the number of passengers which the vessel may carry by the number of cubic feet of space in which they are to be carried, and it declares that, in making this calculation, children of the ages mentioned need not be counted. ”

“ It is very difficult to understand how any different doctrine can be sustained. A treaty is primarily a compact between independent nations. It depends for the enforcement of its provisions on the interest and the honor of the governments which are parties to it. ”

“ That on the second day of October, 1882, there arrived, consigned to the plaintiffs, the Dutch ship Leerdam, owned by certain citizens or subjects of the kingdom of Holland, and belonging to the nationality of Holland, at the port of New York. She had sailed from the foreign port of Rotterdam, in Holland, bound to New York, and carried 382 persons not citizens of the United States. That among said 382 persons 20 were severally under the age of one year and 59 were severally between the ages of one year and eight years. ”

“ It directs that such officers shall go on board vessels arriving from abroad, and if, on examination, they shall find any convict, lunatic, idiot, or any person unable to take care of himself or herself, without becoming a public charge, they shall report to the collector, and such person shall not be permitted to land. ”

“ It is also enacted that convicts, except for political offenses, shall be returned to the nations to which they belong. And the secretary is directed to prepare rules for the protection of the immigrant who needs it, and for the return of those who are not permitted to land. ”

“ It was, therefore, of the essence of the decision which held the state statutes invalid, that a similar statute by congress would be valid. We are not disposed to reconsider those cases, or to resort to other reasons for holding that they were well decided. Nor do we feel that further argument in support of them is needed. But counsel for plaintiffs, assuming that congress, in the enactment of this law, is exercising the taxing power conferred by the first clause of section 8, art. ”

“ That said collector, before allowing complete entry of said vessel, as collector decided, on the twelfth day of October, 1882, that the plaintiffs must pay a duty of one hundred and ninety-one dollars for said passengers, being fifty cents for each of said 382 passengers. ”