Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 5.djvu/612

 600 FEDBBAL REPORTER. �vessel of any description whatsoever used in rivers or inland naviga- tion." �Veasels navigating the Eaat river and Long Island sound are not within the exception. �This statute, though as respects vessels engaged in foreign and interstate commerce it can be justified under the power of con- gress to regulate commerce with foreign nations and among the States, is not to be construed as limited in its operation to such ves- sels, but applies also to vessels engaged exclusively in the commerce of a single state, navigating the navigable waters not excepted, and 80 applied it is not unconstitutional. It is a valid exercise of the powers of legislation given to congress in those clauses of the consti- tution whioh provide that "the judicial power of the United States shall extond to ail cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction," and that congress " shall have power to make ail laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution * * * ail pow- ers vested by this constitution in the government of the United Btates, or in any department or any offlcer thereof," �Congress has power to make the admiralty and maritime jurisdiction of the courts of the United Btates exclusive of ail state jurisdiction, and may, in the exercise of its power to erect courts inferior to the supreme court, and to prescribe their powers and jurisdiction, give or with- hold particular remedies in a particular class of admiralty and mari- time causes. It may by law provide that ail claims of a maritime character, growing out of a single disaster, be presented and tried in one proceeding, and may restrict the remedy in such cases to a pro- ceeding in rem against the vessel and freight, withholding ail rem- edy in personam, or limiting the latter to the value of the vessel and freight ; and such is the eflect of this statute. �The maritime law of the United Btates consists of those ruies and principles of the general maritime law which have been adopted and acted on in the United Btates. It is of uniform operation throughout the country, and superseded the maritime law in force in the several States at the adoption of the constitution. It is subject to change by the adoption of rules of the general maritime law of the world not before adopted as part of the maritime law of the United States. �The courts can only declare what the maritime law of the United Btates is. �Whether, independently of its power to regulate commerce, con- gress has a general power under the constitution to change the mari- time law of the United States by adopting, as part of that law, a rule or principle of the general maritime law not before adopted, qucere. �Even if congress has not this power, by direct legislation, to enact this statute otherwise than as a regulation of commerce, the adoption of this rule of limitation of liability, ao far as the power of congress extends as to ail sea-going vessels engaged in interstate and foreign commerce upon the exterior waters of the United States, is a con- trolling circumstance showing that this general rule of maritime law ����