by the Court of Appeals, the highest court of law in that State, and an action having been brought for the enforcement of a penalty against an official of the Maryland branch (United States) bank for a violation of the State law, the defendant—one McCulloch, the cashier of the said branch bank—thereupon brought the case (as involving an interpretation of the Federal Constitution) by writ of error before the United States Supreme Court.
A little reflection will abundantly satisfy the reader that the question involved in this procedure was of the greatest importance, inasmuch as it necessitated certain rational and fundamental conclusions that had not previously been authoritatively reached and popularly accepted, respecting the nature and power of the Federal Government; and a definite interpretation of the letter and spirit of certain features of the Federal Constitution which, as the action of the States before noticed demonstrated, had, to say the least, been heretofore regarded as ambiguous. So that, whatever might be the decision of the court, the consequences were certain to be most momentous. Thus, if the right of a State to tax—which practically involved the right to destroy the instrumentalities of the Federal Government, was denied, then such Government rested on sure foundations. If, on the other hand, to quote the language of the court, "the right of the State to tax the means employed by the General Government be conceded, the declaration that the Constitution and laws made in pursuance thereof shall be the supreme law of the land is an empty and unmeaning declaration," and the United States, in the sense of a nation, would practically cease to exist. Taking also into account the increase in the number of States that would have to harmonize if anything was accomplished in a new constitutional convention, and the number of new antagonizing elements on the part of the several States that had arisen—the vexing question of the future tolerance and extension of slavery, which finally eventuated in civil war, the power of Congress to create banking corporations, and the right of the Legislatures of the States to subject them to taxation, and the like—and it is very doubtful whether any new Federal Constitution could have been established. As a matter of fact, the Federal Government and the union of the States came nearer disruption and dissolution in 1819 than when, forty two years subsequently, Fort Sumter was fired upon and the flag of the Union forcibly hauled down—which latter events are generally regarded as constituting the leading features of the constitutional history of the United States. And this situation was so well recognized by Chief-Justice Marshall (to whom the nation is indebted for its preservation to a greater degree than has been generally recognized) as to draw from him
