former cases on this subject are reviewed in Escanaba Company v. Chicago, ante, p. 678.

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.

In Gibbons v. Ogden it was held, that, as the navigation of all public waters of the United States is subject to the regulation of Congress, a license granted under the laws and by the authority of the United States to a steamboat to carry on the coasting trade entitled such boat to navigate all such waters, notwithstanding the existence of a State law granting to certain individuals the exclusive right to navigate a portion of said waters lying within the State; and that such exclusive grant was void as being repugnant to the regulation made by Congress. Chief Justice Marshall, delivering the opinion of the court in that case, said: "The court will enter upon the inquiry, whether the laws of New York, as expounded by the highest tribunal of that State, have, in their application to this case, come into collision with an act of Congress, and deprived a citizen of a right to which the act entitles him."

Subsequent cases which we have already cited in this opinion are to the same effect. Crandall v. State of Nevada, 6 Wall. 35; Ward v. Maryland, 12 id. 418; Welton v. State of Missouri, 91 U. S. 275; Henderson v. Mayor of New York, 92 id. 259; People v. Compagnie Générale Transatlantique, ante, p. 59.

State of Pennsylvania v. Wheeling, &c. Bridge Co., 13 How. 518, was a peculiar case. The Wheeling bridge, as originally constructed, presented a complete obstacle to the passage of steamboats 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; and having jurisdiction on this ground, it was competent for the court to decide upon the lawfulness or unlawfulness of the structure in reference, not only to the laws of the United States, but also to the local municipal law, and to the general law relating to the mutual rights of the States. The charter granted to the Wheeling Bridge Company by the State of Virginia had expressly provided, "that if the said bridge shall be so constructed as to injure the navigation of said river, the said bridge shall be treated as a public nuisance, and shall be liable to abatement upon the same principles and in the same manner that other public nuisances are." In addition to this, an act was passed Dec. 18, 1789, by the State of Virginia, consenting to the erection of the State of Kentucky out of its territory on certain conditions, among which was one "that the use and navigation of the river Ohio, so far as the territory of the proposed State, or the territory that shall remain within the limits of this Commonwealth, lies thereon, shall be free and common to the citizens of the United States ;" and to this the assent of Congress was given by the act of Feb. 4, 1791, c. 4. "This compact," the court said, "by the sanction of Congress, has become a law of the Union." Upon all these grounds, itwas held that the State of Pennsylvania, having large interests which were affected by the erection of the bridge, was entitled to a decree for its prostration as a nuisance, unless such alterations should be made in its construction as to leave the navigation of the river unimpaired.

This case, therefore, cannot be relied on, any more than the other cases referred to, to show that the courts of the United States have any peculiar jurisdiction as such to vindicate the supposed rights of commerce and navigation against the laws of the States, in matters of a local nature, such as the regulation of wharfage is, where no express provision of the Constitution is violated, and no act of Congress has been passed to regulate the subject. As no act of Congress has been passed for the regulation of wharfage, and as there is nothing in 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.

The effect of this conclusion upon the present case is obvious. The gravamen of the bill is really nothing but a complaint against exorbitant rates of wharfage. These rates are established by a municipal body, itself the proprietor of the wharves, and professing to act under the authority of State law. 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; and whether the question of reasonableness of wharfage is submitted to the determination of the one forum or the other, it is only determinable by the laws of the State within whose jurisdiction the wharf is situated. Since the parties are all citizens of West Virginia, and since the case cannot be sustained as one "arising under the Constitution or laws of the United States," there was no error in the decree dismissing the bill of complaint. The decree of the Circuit Court is, therefore,

MR. JUSTICE HARLAN dissenting.

Affirmed.

The city of Parkersburg - which has been created a port of delivery in conformity with the laws of the United States exacts and collects for the use of its wharf by boats engaged in commerce on the Ohio River certain fees or dues, called wharfage charges, which, pursuant to the ordinance of May 17, 1865, are, in every case, measured by the tonnage or capacity of the boat so using the wharf.

It is conceded by the demurrer to the bill that from these fees the city has long since been reimbursed for the actual cost of constructing the wharf; that the amount annually collected

from boats for its use is largely in excess of any expense incurred in its maintenance and repair; that it has been permitted to become and remain in bad repair, at times almost unfit for use; that nearly all the money so raised is applied by the city to increase its general revenue and pay its indebtedness; and, lastly, that the wharfage charges are unreasonable in amount and oppressive.

The opinion of the court, if I do not wholly misapprehend it, proceeds upon the broad ground that municipal wharfage charges, even where measured by the tonnage of the boat, and however much in excess of fair and reasonable compensation, are not duties of tonnage within the meaning of the Constitution, and that their exaction infringes no right given or secured by the Constitution or the existing statutes of the United States. If, however, such charges are duties of tonnage, or if their collection violates any right, so given or secured, then a case unquestionably arises under the Constitution or laws of the United States, of which the Circuit Court, under the act of March 3, 1875, c. 137, can take original jurisdiction, without reference to the citizenship of the parties.

I had supposed, and am still of opinion, that a vessel or boat, duly enrolled and licensed under the laws of the United States (as those of the appellant are conceded to be), and engaged in commerce upon the Ohio, a public navigable water, is entitled, in virtue of the Constitution and laws of the United States, to enter any port on that river, and also to land at any wharf established for public use, without being subjected (apart from mere police regulations) to any burden, tax, or duty.therefor, beyond reasonable compensation to the owner of the wharf for its use.

Such I have understood to be the doctrine announced in Cannon v. New Orleans, 20 Wall. 577; Packet Company v. Keokuk, 95 U. S. 80; Packet Company v. St. Louis, 100 id. 423; Vicksburg v. Tobin, id. 430.

The court holds that Congress, under the power to regulate commerce with foreign nations and among the several States, may, by statute, provide for the protection, through the courts, of those engaged in commerce upon the public navigable waters of the United States against unreasonable charges for

the use of wharves by boats. But without further legislation, specifically directed to that end, the courts, I submit, should adjudge that local regulations, such as those adopted by the city of Parkersburg, are within the prohibition upon the States to lay any duty of tonnage, and are also inconsistent with the compact between Virginia and Kentucky which this court, in State of Pennsylvania v. Wheeling, &c., Bridge Co., 13 How. 518, 564, declared had become, by the sanction of Congress, a law of the Union. In that compact it is declared that "the use and navigation of the river Ohio, so far as the territory of the proposed State, or the territory that shall remain within the limits of this Commonwealth [Virginia], lies thereon, shall be free and common to the citizens of the United States."

In the opinion of the court a duty of tonnage is defined to be a charge, tax, or duty on a vessel for the mere privilege of entering or lying in a port. The city of Parkersburg cannot, therefore, constitutionally impose a charge, tax, or duty upon, or for the exercise of, that privilege. Now, do the Constitution and the existing laws of the United States extend their protection no further than to secure the bare, naked right of entering a port free from local burdens or duties upon its exercise? May not the boat, in virtue of the Constitution and existing laws, also land at any wharf, at least at any public wharf, or the Ohio River for the purpose of discharging and receiving freight and passengers? Of what value would be the right to enter the port without the privilege of landing its passengers and freight? Is not the substantial privilege of landing passengers and freight necessarily involved in the right of entering the port? If so, it would seem that the right to land a boat at a public wharf on a navigable water of the United States is as fully protected by the Constitution and the existing laws of the United States as that of entering the port. A charge, tax, or duty imposed upon the exercise of the right to land is consequently, for every practical purpose, as much a duty of tonnage as a charge, tax, or duty upon the privilege of entering the port. The constitutional provision that "no State shall, without the consent of Congress, lay any duty of tonnage; " the power given Congress to regulate commerce among the States; the statutes of the United States, in the exercise of that