Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 6.djvu/338

 826 FEDERAL REPORIEB. �HaTCH and another v. The Wallamet Ieon Bridge Co. {Circuit Court, D. Oregon. March 28, 1881.) �1. JUBISDICTION. �A suit arises out of a law of the United States when the controversy involved in it turns upon the proper construction or application of such law ; and theref ore a suit by the owner of a vessel authorized to engage in the coasting trade upon the Wallamet river, and by ripa- rian owners thereon, to enjoin the erection of a bridge over said river at Portland, as being in violation of the act of congress under which said vessel was enroUed and licensed, and the act of congress (11 St. 383) deelaring said river a free and common bighway, arises under said laws, whether the plaintifls are entitled to the relief sought or not. �2. Navigable Waters — CoirTROi. cf. �The power of congress to regulate commerce (Const. art. 1, { 8) includes, for the purposes of commerce, control of ail the navigable waters of the United States which are accessible from a state, other than the one in which they lie ; and, for this purpose, they are the waters of the nation, and subject to the legislation of congress in every particular affecting their navigability or use as instruments or means of commerce. �3. Bridges — Navigable Waters. �The state has the sole power to bridge the waters within its limits, but this power is subject to the power of congress to prevent obstruc- tions to navigation being placed in such waters within the state, and accessible from without it ; and therefore, in the absence of legislation by congress to the contrary, a state may dam or otherwise obstruct the navigable waters within its limits at pleasure. �4. CONGBESSIONAL ACTION — CONSTRUCTION OF. �The acts of congress authorizing a vessel to engage in the coasting trade within a state are construed as not manif esting an intention upon the part of congress to interfere with the power of the state to obstruct the navigable waters within its limits, but only to authorize their navigation by such vessel for the purposes of such trade, so long as they are navigable. �6. Samb. �The provision in section 2 of the act of February 14, IS.'D, (11 St. 383,) admitting Oregon into the Union, which declares that "-ail the navigable waters of said state shall be common highways and forever free" to ail ihe citizens of the United States, is paramount to a law of the state authorizing a bridge to be erected across the Wallamet river ; and therefore, if such bridge as proposed to be constructed will materially impede or obstruct the free navigation of said river, it is unlawful, and the parties constructing it may be enjoined at the suit of ripariaii owuers injured thereby. ��� �