Today, there are over 400 departments, agencies and sub-agencies in the federal government. Many of these agencies are involved in enforcing federal regulations intended to protect the health and well-being of the public. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) itself has over 18,000 employees in all 50 states. The regulatory authority of the FDA comes from Congress's constitutional power to regulate interstate commerce. Prior to 1824, this authority was very limited, but in Gibbons v. Ogden, the supreme court vastly expanded the powers of congress through a broad interpretation of the constitution's commerce clause. Fourteen years later, Congress used this broad definition to regulate steamboat operators for the health and wellbeing of the public. The door was opened to a virtually unlimited power of Congress to regulate industry under the guise of public health.
Martin Van Buren was president at the time and played a crucial role in getting the steamboat regulations passed. Six months into his presidency, on June 9th at 5 o'clock PM the steam boiler on the Rob Roy enroute to Louisville exploded near the town of Columbia, Arkansas. As soon as the accident occurred, the crew of the ship ran the boat ashore saving many lives. Still, according to the Louisville City Gazette, 17 lives were lost. All were killed by the explosion, none were drowned. This disaster was not the first due to an explosion and certainly not the last. The Rob Roy explosion took place just two months after the Secretary of the treasury shared a report with Congress on steam boiler explosions created by the Franklin Institute. The Franklin Institute committee provided detailed recommendations on provisions to include in regulatory legislation including the following.
- Appoint Inspectors to test all boilers using hydraulic methods every six months.
- Reject the license of any ships whose boilers are determined to be unsafe.
- Implement penalties in cases of explosions due to poor maintenance, negligence or racing.
- Hold owners responsible for life and injury if they fail to have their ships properly inspected
- Require engineers to meet standards of experience, knowledge and character.
Congress did not immediately act on these proposals, but with recent steamboat explosions like the Rob Roy, undoubtedly on the minds of Americans, President Martin Van Buren urged Congress in his first State of the Union to take rapid action.
"The distressing casualties in steamboats which have so frequently happened during the year seem to evince the necessity of attempting to prevent them by means of severe provisions connected with their customhouse papers. This subject was submitted to the attention of Congress by the Secretary of the Treasury in his last annual report, and will be again noticed at the present session, with additional details. It will doubtless receive that early and careful consideration which its pressing importance appears to require."
The Senate responded quickly and passed a measure on January 24, 1838, but the bill stalled in the House. Then, another steamboat explosion occurred. On April 25, 1838, the riverboat Mosele suffered a boiler explosion killing 160 passengers. Several Congressman tried to rush the bill to the floor, but that motion was defeated. Then, on June 16 the bill was brought to the floor where debate centered on whether Congress had the authority based on the interstate commerce clause in the Constitution to pass such a bill. Proponents of the bill finally succeeded. The bill was approved, and it became law on July 7, 1838. The law provided that a federal judge appoints competent boiler inspectors to examine every steamboat boiler semi-annually and issue licenses to the owner upon approval. The law did not specify any license criteria but did require the owner of the ship to pay the inspector $5.00. The law also required owners to hire experienced engineers and did not specify requirements for this either. The law held the steamboat owners responsible for life and injury in the event of an explosion, they did not abide by the law and any deaths resulting from negligence were considered manslaughter and could be punished with up to 10 years of prison. Without inspection or experience criteria, the bill was ineffectual and left some wondering why Congress would pass such a bill. Perhaps, they yielded to pressure from those who feared too much government interests, or perhaps they were just trying to save face given the public pressure due to recent disasters. Nevertheless, this was the first federal regulation of private industry for safety reasons. Most definitely it was not the last one to be ineffectual either.
References
“First Annual Message.” First Annual Message | The American Presidency Project, 5 Dec. 1837, www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/first-annual-message-4
Bursting Boilers and the Federal Power John G. Burke Technology and Culture, Vol. 7, No. 1. (Winter, 1966), pp. 14-17.
https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/rob-roy-steamboat-15697/
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