Monopolies -- United States; Railroads and state -- United States
union, contests respecting power must arise. Were it otherwise, the
measures taken by the respective governments to execute their
acknowledged powers would often be of the same description, and might
sometimes interfere. This, however, does not prove that the one is
exercising, or has the right to exercise, the power of the other."
As to the power of congress to create corporations, an argument has been
drawn in its favor from the provision of the constitution, which
declares that congress shall have the power of making "all laws which
shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing
powers, and all other powers vested by this constitution in the
government of the United States, or in any department thereof." The
question before the court arose out of the attempt of the state of
Maryland to tax the United States bank, a corporation chartered by
congress. In this case the power was upheld on the ground that the bank
was necessary in the administration of the finances of the government,
that being one of the matters vested in or delegated to the general
government, the power to charter the bank was incidental to the granted
power. But on the question of the power of congress to create
corporations, Mr. Marshall says, page 167: "The creation of a
corporation, it is said, appertains to sovereignty. This is admitted.
But to what portion of sovereignty does it appertain? Does it belong to
one more than another? In America the powers of sovereignty are divided
between the government of the Union, and those of the states. They are
each sovereign with respect to the objects committed to it, and neither
sovereign with respect to the objects committed to the other. We cannot
comprehend that train of reasoning which would maintain that the extent
of power granted by the people is to be ascertained, not by the nature
and terms of the grant, but by its date. Some state constitutions were
formed before, some since that of the United States. We cannot believe
that their relation to each other is in any degree dependent upon this
circumstance. Their respective powers must, we think, be precisely the
same as if they had been formed at the same time. Had they been formed
at the same time, and had the people conferred on the general government
the power contained in the constitution and on the states the whole
residium of power, would it have been asserted that the government of
the union was not sovereign with respect to those objects which were
entrusted to it, in relation to which its laws were declared to be
supreme? If this could have been asserted, we cannot well comprehend the
process of reasoning which maintains that a power appertaining to
sovereignty cannot be connected with that vast portion of it which is
granted to the general government, so far as it is calculated to
subserve the legitimate objects of that government. The power of
creating a corporation, though appertaining to sovereignty, is not like
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