Outrageous: The Victoria Woodhull Saga, Volume 1 by Neal Katz

Author:Neal Katz
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Top Reads Publishing, LLC

While many had tried to produce a steam-powered vessel, one person in particular had both the vision and the resources. Chancellor Robert R. Livingston was an aristocrat among aristocrats, and head of one of the richest and most prestigious families in America. He helped Thomas Jefferson draft the Declaration of Independence. Through political influence, Mr. Livingston, while serving as the Chancellor of the State of New York, procured an exclusive license to operate steam-powered sailing vessels on the waterways of New York—even though, at the time, no such vessel existed.

After marrying Robert Livingston’s niece, Robert Fulton successfully built the first commercial steamboat. The Livingston family would use the original exclusive, New York State license to file suit against anyone who dared to operate a steamboat in New York waters.

Aaron Ogden was the Governor of New Jersey and also Gibbons’ contentious neighbor. Ogden originally competed against the Livingston and Fulton companies, challenging the legality of the exclusive license. They settled the lawsuit after years of costly legal battles, with Ogden receiving a sub-license right to operate a ferry between Elizabethtown, New Jersey and Manhattan under the original Livingston grant.

Gibbons filed a new lawsuit, Gibbons vs. Ogden, after a conclusive consultation with Aaron Burr, who told him that no Federal Court would uphold one state dictating the use of interstate waterways to another. If true, this would break the longstanding monopoly held by Livingston and Fulton and, under assignment, by Ogden. The powerful Livingston and Fulton interests combined with Ogden and fought a brutal war of attrition against Gibbons and his Captain, Cornelius Vanderbilt.

Vanderbilt filed a parallel suit. The cases worked their way through the New York State legal system with Gibbons and Vanderbilt losing every time. Finally, the United States Supreme Court accepted both cases. The Court would hear Vanderbilt’s suit after the Gibbons vs. Ogden decision. Vanderbilt traveled to Washington, D. C. and retained the services of Daniel Webster to argue both cases before the court of Chief Justice, John Marshall. Webster accepted the case because of its monumental importance to the financial well being of the United States as one republic. Arguments were presented on February 5, 1824. All the different newspapers covered this major public event, pitting the popular, defiant Captain Vanderbilt against the high society, tremendously wealthy, and blue blood Livingston family.

By the time of the final decision, the stakes had become enormous for all sides. Vanderbilt violated New York State court orders daily and accumulated unpaid fines for years. If the court decided against Gibbons, Vanderbilt would be bankrupt, lose his entire fleet and land in jail.

The final decision was delayed until the morning of March 2. Chief Justice Marshall led the other six Supreme Court Justices onto the bench. Chief Justice Marshall wrote the majority opinion and read it to the hushed courtroom. He praised the great State of New York and acknowledged that the lower courts had rightly upheld the instrument of commerce legally granted within the state to Robert Livingston. Then he pronounced

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