Trump v. Cook · ¶14

Although the charter for the First Bank was allowed to expire in 1811, it took only five years for Congress to reverse course. As Chief Justice Marshall remarked in our Court’s first major decision on the breadth of the Federal Government’s enumerated powers, “a short experience of the embarrassments to which the refusal to revive [the First Bank] exposed the government”—severe financial instability following the War of 1812—“convinced those who were most prejudiced against the measure of its necessity.” McCulloch v. Maryland, 4 Wheat. 316, 402 (1819). That necessity led to the Second Bank of the United States—encouraged even by President Madison, previously an ardent foe. See J. Madison, Seventh Annual Message (Dec. 5, 1815), in 1 Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents, 1789–1897, pp. 562, 564–566 (J. Richardson ed. 1897) (Compilation). Like its predecessors, the…

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