s affirmed in the Court for the Trial of Impeachments and
Correction of Errors, which is the highest court of law and equity in
the State of New York before which the cause could be carried, and it
was thereupon carried up to the Supreme Court of the United States by
appeal.

The following argument was made by Mr. Webster, for the plaintiff in
error.]

It is admitted, that there is a very respectable weight of authority in
favor of the decision which is sought to be reversed. The laws in
question, I am aware, have been deliberately re-enacted by the
legislature of New York; and they have also received the sanction, at
different times, of all her judicial tribunals, than which there are
few, if any, in the country, more justly entitled to respect and
deference. The disposition of the court will be, undoubtedly, to
support, if it can, laws so passed and so sanctioned. I admit,
therefore, that it is justly expected of us that we should make out a
clear case; and unless we do so, we cannot hope for a reversal. It
should be remembered, however, that the whole of this branch of power,
as exercised by this court, is a power of revision. The question must be
decided by the State courts, and decided in a particular manner, before
it can be brought here at all. Such decisions alone give this court
jurisdiction; and therefore, while they are to be respected as the
judgments of learned judges, they are yet in the condition of all
decisions from which the law allows an appeal.

It will not be a waste of time to advert to the existing state of the
facts connected with the subject of this litigation. The use of
steamboats on the coasts and in the bays and rivers of the country, has
become very general. The intercourse of its different parts essentially
depends upon this mode of conveyance and transportation. Rivers and
bays, in many cases, form the divisions between States; and thence it is
obvious, that, if the States should make regulations for the navigation
of these waters, and such regulations should be repugnant and hostile,
embarrassment would necessarily be caused to the general intercourse of
the community. Such events have actually occurred, and have created the
existing state of things.

By the law of New York, no one can navigate the bay of New York, the
North River, the Sound, the lakes, or any of the waters of that State,
by steam-vessels, without a license from the grantees of New York, under
penalty of forfeiture