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CONSTITUTION OF THE U. STATES.
[BOOK III.
no where limited; and may even establish monopolies.[1] Indeed this very charter is a monopoly.[2]
§ 1257. The reasoning, by which the constitutionality of the national bank has been sustained, is contained in the following summary. The powers confided to the national government are unquestionably, so far as they exist, sovereign and supreme.[3] It is not, and cannot be disputed, that the power of creating a corporation is one belonging to sovereignty. But so are all other legislative powers; for the original power of giving the law on any subject whatever is a sovereign power. If the national government cannot create a corporation, because it is an exercise of sovereign power, neither can it, for the same reason, exercise any other legislative power.[4] This consideration alone ought to put an end to the abstract inquiry, whether the national government has power to erect a corporation, that is, to give a legal or artificial capacity to one or more persons, distinct from the natural capacity.[5] For, if it be an incident to sovereignty, and it is not prohibited, it must belong to the national government in relation to the objects entrusted to it. The true difference is this; where the authority of a government is general, it can create corporations in all cases; where it is confined to certain branches of legislation, it can create corporations only as to those cases.[6] It cannot be denied, that implied powers may be delegated, as well as express. It follows, that a- ↑ 4 Elliot's Debates, 217, 219, 224, 225.
- ↑ 4 Elliot's Debates, 219, 220, 223.
- ↑ Hamilton on Bank, 1 Hamilton's Works, 113; 4 Wheat. R. 405, 406, 409, 410.
- ↑ M'Culloch v. Maryland, 4 Wheat. R. 409.
- ↑ Hamilton on Bank, 1 Hamilton's Works, 113, 114, 124.
- ↑ Hamilton on Bank, 1 Hamilton's Works, 113, 114, 131.
