M'Culloch v. Maryland · ¶45

After this declaration, it can scarcely be necessary to say, that the existence of State banks can have no possible influence on the qüéstiou. No trace is to be found in the constitution of an intention to create a dependence of the government of the Union on those of the States, for the execution of the great powers assigned to it. Its means are adequate to its ends: and on those means alone was it expected to rely for the accomplishment of its ends. To impose on it thé necessity of resorting to means which it cannot control, which another government may furnish or withhold, would render its course precarious, the result of its measures uncertain,, and create a dependence on other governments, which might disappoint its most important designs, and is incompatible with the language of the. constitution. But. were it otherwise, the choice of means implies a right to choose a national…

U. S. Reports, bound volume
U. S. Reports, volume 17, at 316 (Library of Congress) · transcription: Caselaw Access Project
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