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486
CONSTITUTION OF THE U. STATES.
[BOOK III.
on all merchandise found in vessels, which were leaving the United States for foreign countries; would it be received, as an excuse for this outrage, were the government to say, that exportation meant no more than carrying goods out of the country, and as the prohibition to lay a tax on imports, or things imported, ceased the instant they were brought into the country, so the prohibition to tax articles exported ceased, when they were carried out of the country?

§ 1028. "We think, then, that the act, under which the plaintiffs in error were indicted, is repugnant to that article of the constitution, which declares, that 'no state shall lay any impost or duties on imports or exports.'"[1]

§ 1029. As the power of taxation exists in the states concurrently with the United States, subject only to the restrictions imposed by the constitution, several questions have from time to time arisen in regard to the nature and extent of the state power of taxation.

§ 1030. In the year 1818, the state of Maryland passed an act, laying a tax on all banks, and branches thereof, not chartered by the legislature of that state; and a question was made, whether the state had a right under that act, to lay a tax on the Branch Bank of the United States in that state. This gave rise to a most animated discussion in the Supreme Court of the United States; where it was finally decided, that the tax was, as to the Bank of the United States, unconstitutional.[2] The reasoning of the Supreme Court, on this subject, was as follows.

  1. ↑ The opinion also proceeded to declare, that the act was a violation of the exclusive power of congress to regulate commerce. But the examination of this part of the question properly belongs to another head.
  2. ↑ M'Culloch v. State of Maryland, 4 Wheat. R. 316; 1 Kent's Comm. Lect. 19, p. 398; id. 401.
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