McCulloch v. Maryland, 17 U.S. 316 (1819)

Syllabus

Congress has power to incorporate a bank.

The Act of the 10th of April, 1816, ch. 44, to "incorporate the subscribers 
to the Bank of the United States" is a law made in pursuance of the 
Constitution.

The Government of the Union, though limited in its powers, is supreme within 
its sphere of action, and its laws, when made in pursuance of the 
Constitution, form the supreme law of the land.

There is nothing in the Constitution of the United States similar to the 
Articles of Confederation, which exclude incidental or implied powers.

If the end be legitimate, and within the scope of the Constitution, all the 
means which are appropriate, which are plainly adapted to that end, and 
which are not prohibited, may constitutionally be employed to carry it into 
effect. 

The power of establishing a corporation is not a distinct sovereign power or 
end of Government, but only the means of carrying into effect other powers 
which are sovereign. Whenever it becomes an appropriate means of exercising 
any of the powers given by the Constitution to the Government of the Union, 
it may be exercised by that Government.

If a certain means to carry into effect of any of the powers expressly given 
by the Constitution to the Government of the Union be an appropriate 
measure, not prohibited by the Constitution, the degree of its necessity is 
a question of legislative discretion, not of judicial cognizance. 

The Bank of the United States has, constitutionally, a right to establish 
its branches or offices of discount and deposit within any state. 

The State within which such branch may be established cannot, without 
violating the Constitution, tax that branch.

The State governments have no right to tax any of the constitutional means 
employed by the Government of the Union to execute its constitutional 
powers. 

The States have no power, by taxation or otherwise, to retard, impede, 
burthen, or in any manner control the operations of the constitutional laws 
enacted by Congress to carry into effect the powers vested in the national 
Government.

This principle does not extend to a tax paid by the real property of the 
Bank of the United States in common with the other real property in a 
particular state, nor to a tax imposed on the proprietary interest which the 
citizens of that State may hold in this institution, in common with other 
property of the same description throughout the State.

This was an action of debt, brought by the defendant in error, John James, 
who sued as well for himself as for the State of Maryland, in the County 
Court of Baltimore County, in the said State, against the plaintiff in 
error, McCulloch, to recover certain penalties, under the act of the 
Legislature of Maryland hereafter mentioned. Judgment being rendered against 
the plaintiff in error, upon the following statement of facts agreed and 
submitted to the court by the parties, was affirmed by the Court of Appeals 
of the State of Maryland, the highest court of law of said State, and the 
cause was brought by writ of error to this Court.

It is admitted by the parties in this cause, by their counsel, that there 
was passed, on the 10th day of April, 1816, by the Congress of the United 
States, an act entitled, "an act to incorporate the subscribers to the Bank 
of the United States;" and that there was passed on the 11th day of 
February, 1818, by the General Assembly of Maryland, an act, entitled, "an 
act to impose a tax on all banks, or branches thereof, in the State of 
Maryland, not chartered by the legislature," [p*318] which said acts are 
made part of this Statement, and it is agreed, may be read from the statute 
books in which they are respectively printed. It is further admitted that 
the President, directors and company of the Bank of the United States, 
incorporated by the act of Congress aforesaid, did organize themselves, and 
go into full operation, in the City of Philadelphia, in the State of 
Pennsylvania, in pursuance of the said act, and that they did on the ___ day 
of _____ 1817, establish a branch of the said bank, or an office of discount 
and deposit, in the City of Baltimore, in the State of Maryland, which has, 
from that time until the first day of May 1818, ever since transacted and 
carried on business as a bank, or office of discount and deposit, and as a 
branch of the said Bank of the United States, by issuing bank notes and 
discounting promissory notes, and performing other operations usual and 
customary for banks to do and perform, under the authority and by the 
direction of the said President, directors and company of the Bank of the 
United States, established at Philadelphia as aforesaid. It is further 
admitted that the said President, directors and company of the said bank had 
no authority to establish the said branch, or office of discount and 
deposit, at the City of Baltimore, from the State of Maryland, otherwise 
than the said State having adopted the Constitution of the United States and 
composing one of the States of the Union. It is further admitted that James 
William McCulloch, the defendant below, being the cashier of the said 
branch, or office of discount and [p*319] deposit did, on the several days 
set forth in the declaration in this cause, issue the said respective bank 
notes therein described, from the said branch or office, to a certain George 
Williams, in the City of Baltimore, in part payment of a promissory note of 
the said Williams, discounted by the said branch or office, which said 
respective bank notes were not, nor was either of them, so issued on stamped 
paper in the manner prescribed by the act of assembly aforesaid. It is 
further admitted that the said President, directors and company of the Bank 
of the United States, and the said branch, or office of discount and deposit 
have not, nor has either of them, paid in advance, or otherwise, the sum of 
$15,000, to the Treasurer of the Western Shore, for the use of the State of 
Maryland, before the issuing of the said notes, or any of them, nor since 
those periods. And it is further admitted that the Treasurer of the Western 
Shore of Maryland, under the direction of the Governor and Council of the 
said State, was ready, and offered to deliver to the said President, 
directors and company of the said bank, and to the said branch, or office of 
discount and deposit, stamped paper of the kind and denomination required 
and described in the said act of assembly.

The question submitted to the Court for their decision in this case is as to 
the validity of the said act of the General Assembly of Maryland on the 
ground of its being repugnant to the Constitution of the United States and 
the act of Congress aforesaid, or to one of them. Upon the foregoing 
statement of facts and the pleadings in this cause (all errors in [p*320] 
which are hereby agreed to be mutually released), if the Court should be of 
opinion that the plaintiffs are entitled to recover, then judgment, it is 
agreed, shall be entered for the plaintiffs for $2,500 and costs of suit. B 
ut if the Court should be of opinion that the plaintiffs are not entitled to 
recover upon the statement and pleadings aforesaid, then judgment of non 
pros shall be entered, with costs to the defendant.

It is agreed that either party may appeal from the decision of the County 
Court to the Court of Appeals, and from the decision of the Court of Appeals 
to the Supreme Court of the United States, according to the modes and usages 
of law, and have the same benefit of this statement of facts in the same 
manner as could be had if a jury had been sworn and impanneled in this cause 
and a special verdict had been found, or these facts had appeared and been 
stated in an exception taken to the opinion of the Court, and the Court's 
direction to the jury thereon.




