Carpenter v. The Schooner Emma Johnson.

cerning steamboats and other vessels employed in the business of commerce and navigation between ports and places in different States and Territories bordering on those waters; but that act has no relation whatever to admiralty jurisdiction upon the high seas, or in the bays, harbors, and arms of the sea on the Atlantic coast. Dismissing that case, therefore, as one not applicable to the question before the court, I will proceed to a brief examination of the one last cited. It was a suit in rem against a steamer to recover the balance for coal furnished the steamer while lying in the port of Sacramento. She was engaged in the business of navigation and trade in the Sacramento River exclusively, within the State of California, and of course between ports and places of the same State. Granting, for the sake of the argument, that the rule laid down in that case is applicable to the harbors, bays, and arms of the sea, still I am of the opinion that it is not an authority for the proposition maintained by the respondents, as applied to the present case, for the reason stated in the opinion of the court, that the steamer was engaged in the business of navigation and trade on the Sacramento River exclusively, within the State of California. It was a suit for supplies, to enable the steamer to navigate the purely internal waters of the State. Even supposing the rule laid down in that case was intended to be applied to the harbors, bays, and arms of the sea on the Atlantic coast, still, I must hold, until the point is otherwise decided by the Supreme Court, that the decision in that case has no application to a contract of affreightment, where, from the usual course of the voyage, a part of the navigation of the vessel is upon the high seas, and out of the jurisdiction of any particular State; and such, I think, must have been the views of Mr. Justice Nelson, as expressed in the case of Moore v. The American Transportation Co., 24 How. 39, when he said it was the purely internal commerce and navigation of a State that is exclusively under State regulations. Great mischief would inevitably result from any rule denying admiralty jurisdiction in all cases where the place of the departure of the vessel and the place of her destination are both within the same State, when any part of the voyage is upon the high seas, for every navigator knows that in many

Carpenter v. The Schooner Emma Johnson.

such cases nearly the whole voyage is out of the limits of any State; and if parties, under such circumstances, can have no remedy in the admiralty courts, it is difficult to see to what tribunals they can resort for the redress of their grievances. Without pursuing the subject at this time, suffice it to say that I am clearly of the opinion that the plea to the jurisdiction of the court cannot be sustained.

APPENDIX.

NOTICE OF THE DEATH OF

HON. RUFUS CHOATE.

CIRCUIT COURT, MASSACHUSETTS DISTRICT, OCTOBER TERM, 1859.

Justice CLIFFORD, and Judge SPRAGUE sitting with him.

THE announcement of the decease of the Hon. Rufus Choate was made to the court by C. L. Woodbury, Esq., United States Attorney for Massachusetts, at Boston, on the morning of the 15th of October.

Mr. Woodbury presented the resolutions of the bar of this court, together with those adopted in the Supreme Judicial Court of the State, and moved that the court order both to be spread upon the records.

This motion the Attorney accompanied by the following remarks:

May it please your Honors :- Since your Honors last met upon the bench of this court, a heavy sorrow has fallen upon its bar. One who, by seniority and service and fame, may well have been called our leader, has gone from our ranks forever.

I have been requested to present to this court the resolves of the bar of Suffolk and of this court, expressive of their respect for the deceased, and their grief at his loss, and to ask that they be spread upon the records.

It is not for me to pronounce the eulogy of this illustrious man. To one who has mingled side by side with him through life's drama, from the commencement to the close of his career, to one well fitted, this task of love has been assigned. But

here, in the forum he loved so well, here, amidst those in the contest with whom he gained his well-earned fame as a jurist and an advocate, - I may be pardoned for a few words concerning him who has passed from amongst the honest, fearless, and able advocates of this bar, with a reputation for genius and humanity that will be called undying.

His predilection for the bar was not an enforced one. Honored by the people's confidence, and the choice of this Commonwealth, he spent several years in each branch of Congress, performing the duties of a legislator with marked ability and constantly increasing reputation; but on the first favorable occasion he returned to the bar, there to remain through the rest of his career, steadfastly resisting numerous efforts to win him back to active public life.

To this bar, that he loved so well, and to his profession, his whole life was a useful and brilliant example. The untiring industry with which he prepared his causes for trial, the patience with which he tried, and the zeal with which he threw the whole powers of his great intellect and strong feelings upon his client's side, were unsurpassed.

More than this, there was that in Mr. Choate which drew to him the affection of those who came in contact with him to a remarkable extent. I do not speak of his relations with the seniors at the bar, they have borne their testimony. It was as a young stranger at this bar that I first made his acquaintance, and it is of his conduct to the juniors that I would speak. His heart warmed towards young men, his advice was always at their service, he encouraged them with words of kindness, and was always willing, by a suggestion or a few words of explanation, to set the inexperienced junior who asked it on the right track for the proper framing of his issue or selection of his law points. No man who rose from youth to middle age at this bar can say that he ever experienced unkindness or hauteur from Mr. Choate in the court-room or the council chamber; I may be wrong, but I deem this kindness and courtesy, native and unaffected as it was, to be a proud trait in the character of one whose fame lived in all men's mouths, whose time was precious as gold, and whose health was continually racked by the herculean