Merchants & Miners Transportation Co. v. Mayor of Baltimore

Cóchran, J., delivered the opinion of this court. The determination of this appeal depends upon the construction of the Act of Congress of 1814, ch. 119, extended by ³⁶³ subsequent Acts to the 3rd of March 1861, assenting to the imposition and collection of tonnage dues, not exceeding two cents per ton, on vessels arriving in the port of Baltimore, as authorized by the Act of Assembly of 1791, ch. 60. The power to impose and collect the tonnage dues, vested in the port wardens by the Act last mentioned, was, by the Act of 1796, ch. 68, sec. 9, transferred to, and vested in, the Mayor and City Council. The Act of Congress qualified the assent, given for the imposition and collection of dues, as provided by the Act of Assembly, by a proviso, that nothing in the Act contained should “authorize the demand of a duty on tonnage on vessels propelled by steam, employed in the transportation of passengers.” The tonnage dues, for the recovery of which this suit was brought, were imposed by 'the Mayor and City Council upon the steam vessels of the appellant employed in transporting freight and passengers, between the ports of Boston and Baltimore.

Payment of the dues, thus imposed, was resisted by the appellant, on the ground, that its vessels were exempted from liability by the.proviso of the Act of Congress, and the question presented is, whether the vessels thus employed in transporting freight'and passengers, are exempted from liability by that proviso^ This provision.of the Act of Congress was apparently designed to encourage the development of a general system of