Key cases: Livingston v. Van Ingen – New York, 1812 (9 Johns. 507); Gibbons v. Ogden – New York, 1825 (17 Johns. 488), reversed, 22 U.S. 1 (1824); North River Steamboat Co. v. Livingston – New York, 1825 (3 Cowen 182)
| Steamboat along the New Jersey shore, 1809 - courtesy New York Public Library Aaron Ogden - courtesy New York Public Library “Are we prepared to say ... that a special privilege for the exclusive navigation by a steam-boat upon our waters, is void, because it may, by possibility, and in the course of events, interfere with the power granted to congress to regulate commerce? Nothing, in my opinion, would be more preposterous and extravagant.” – Chancellor James Kent, in Van Ingen |
EMPIRE OF LAWS - The Legal History of the 50 American States > 2. MID-ATLANTIC LEGAL HISTORY > 2.2. The Mid-Atlantic States: The Early Republican Era (1776-1825) > 2.2.1. The Early Republican Era (1776-1825): Revolutionary Constitutions and Democratizing the Courts > 2.2.2. The Early Republican Era (1776-1825): The Continuing Evolution of Free Speech >