Richmond daily times. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1853, 1852-03-18

. A. ina Desen,ber term, ia4a, IL was referred
| TO Chancellor Walworth, of New fork, to take
testimony and enquire it the bridge was an
obstruction to the navigation by steam or sail
vessels, and if so, what alteration, if any, can be
| made in the bridge consistent with its continu-
ance that will remove the obstruction to free
yigation The Commissioner took an immense
mass of testimony declared by some of the
Judges to be vague, contradictory, and much of
| it, irrelevant,) from which he educed and stated
in his report the several conclusions: l. That
| the bridge did not obstruct navigation by sail
vessels. 2. That it did obstruct navigation by
| steam vessels. 3. That the change required is
to raise the cables and flooring IN such manner
as to give lerel headcay, at least three hundred
feet ride ouer Convenient part Of the channel, if
not less than one hundred and taoenty feet aboue
the leuet of zero in the Wheeling aeater guage.
| Upon solemn argument and consideration, a
majority of the Court have held, (the Chief Jus
icehnd Justice Daniel dissenting) that the bridge
must be raised from its present height for 300
feet over the channel of the river, not less than
| one hundred and eteren feet from the low water
| mark-that the flooring of the bridge must be
| made to descend from the termini of the eleva-
ton, at the rate of four feet in the hundred,
which will give level Roadway for boats 800
feet in width, and will enable those whose
chimnies are eighty feet high to pass under the
bridge when the water is 30feet deep from the
ground, leaving the tops of the chimnies two
feet below the lowest parts of the bridge. And
if this, OF some other plan shall not be adop-
ted, which shall relieve the navigation from
obstruction on or before the 1st day of Februa-
ry next, ''dle bridge must be abated :" in other
| words, the Supreme Court decides, that this
| bridge shall be pulled down and reconstructed as
| 1t thinks it should be-or it must cease to ex-
| ist II
Such is the practical issue of this litigation.
| The bridge which is here declared to be a nui-
sance by the Federal Judiciary, has been erect
ed within the territory Of Virginia, and by the
crpreSs authority Of her legislature; for it can
not be, and is not pretended that it violates in its
| mode of construction, the prescriptions of the
| explanatory act, already quoted of the 18th Of
January, 1850. That litigation has been vir-
tually promoted, not by the State Of Pennsyl-
| vania as party having direct interest in the
issue OF the controversy. but by private individ-
| uais asserting their own personal rights under
color Of remote and fanciful conjectures of inju-
ry TO the interests of the State. This fact ap-
pears in the very statement of the case on the
record, and still clearly, it is said, upon the
testimony taken in the cause. Moreover, al
thengh n the resolution of Pennsylvania Of
January, 1850, approving of the institution Of
tais suit, there mas been interpolated an express
sion '.tnat the revenues of her public works
have been impaired yet that consequence
which might flow from many causes confessedy
legitimate, such is the competition of rival lines
of improvements is, in this instance, express
ly attributed, not to any injury to property Of
hers, but to the hindrance of s'steamboats and
water crafts used to come to Pittsburg and 9TH
J er towns in Pennsylvania-and to the labor ex-
pense, danger and delay .to the citizens of this
State" bound to and from her ports. 1t is these
owners of STEAMBOATS, and water craft" then,
and sscitizens'' of Pennsylvania, who, under the
name of the ''State, have made their way
into the Supreme Court Of the Union, and have
found protection and countenance there, in q
direct assault upon the sovereign authority Of
the State of Virginia Or upon her citizens acting
within her territory, under the permission OF
her laws and the agis of her authority.
So much for the general statement of the case.
We have some further remarks to make on it
hereafter.