Gibbons v. Ogden

Context

Gibbons v. Ogden occurred against a backdrop of rapid economic and social change in the young United States. Following the Revolutionary War, millions of Americans moved west across the Appalachian Mountains to settle in the newly available lands of the Midwest and Old Southwest. The American public thus became interested in newer and faster forms of transportation. Steam power had already been successfully used in Great Britain to pump water out of mines and operate looms in factories. Early American inventors like John Fitch and James Rumsey hoped to build functioning steamboats that would further aid in the westward expansion of the United States.

After the War of 1812, the United States entered a full-blown “transportation revolution,” involving widespread support for steam power, canals, turnpikes, and public roads. Under the leadership of the Kentucky senator Henry Clay, Congress launched a formidable array of internal improvements, dubbed the American System, designed to link the different economic sections of the nation together into a seamless whole. At the state level, the New York governor DeWitt Clinton took the lead in promoting the Erie Canal, an ambitious attempt to connect the Hudson River to the Great Lakes and thus make New York City the leading port in the fledgling nation.

Steamboat entrepreneurs like Fitch, Rumsey, and Fulton had to secure resources, patrons, and legal protection in an ad hoc manner. Given the weakness of federal patent laws, they sought state monopolies that gave them exclusive rights to steam travel at the local level. As steamboats became more widely available, competitors emerged to challenge these monopolies. This led to a series of lawsuits in state and federal courts, which became a morass of unresolved litigation. Meanwhile, the public clamored for cheaper steamboat fares and better service. The federal government in general and the Supreme Court in particular were reluctant to become involved in such an explosive issue, yet the persistence of Aaron Ogden and Thomas Gibbons in pursuing their legal conflict through the federal courts prompted the ultimate intervention of the Supreme Court in 1824.