defendants put in an answer relying on the doctrine laid down by
Story. The District Court overruled it. The case came by appeal
to the Supreme Court, and in an opinion by Chief Justice Taney
the appeal was dismissed. "The conviction," he said, referring
to the opinion of Mr. Justice Story, "that this definition of
admiralty powers was narrower than the Constitution contemplated,
has been growing stronger every day with the growing commerce on
the lakes and navigable rivers of the western States.... These
lakes are in truth inland seas. Different States border on them
on one side and a foreign nation on the other. A great and
growing commerce is carried on upon them between different States
and a foreign nation, which is subject to all the incidents and
hazards that attend commerce on the ocean. Hostile fleets have
encountered on them and prizes been made, and every reason which
existed for the grant of admiralty jurisdiction to the general
government on the Atlantic seas applies with equal force to the
lakes. There is an equal necessity for the instance and for the
prize power of the admiralty court to administer international
law, and if the one cannot be established neither can the
other.... The case of the _Thomas Jefferson_ did not decide
any question of property or lay down any rule by which the right
of property should be determined.... The rights of property and
of parties will be the same by whatever court the law is
administered. And as we are convinced that the former decision
was founded in error, and that the error, if not corrected, must
produce serious public as well as private inconvenience and loss,
it becomes our duty not to perpetuate it."[Footnote: The Genesee
Chief, 12 Howard's Reports, 443, 451.]

But without any change of circumstances, the proper desire of all