In view of this description of the nature of a franchise, how can it be possible that a franchise granted by Congress can be subject to taxation by a state without the consent of Congress? Taxation is a burden and may be laid so heavily as to destroy the thing taxed or render it valueless. As Chief Justice Marshall said in _McCulloch v. Maryland_, "The power to tax involves the power to destroy."... It seems to us almost absurd to contend that a power given to a person or corporation by the United States may be subjected to taxation by a state. The power conferred emanates from and is a portion of the power of the government that confers it. To tax it is not only derogatory to the dignity but subversive of the powers of the government, and repugnant to its paramount sovereignty. [Footnote 1: _Railroad Company v. Peniston_, 18 Wall., 5, 30.] [Footnote 2: 127 U.S., 1.] It is true that the Court was here discussing the right of a state to tax franchises granted by the United States, and not the converse of that question. The reasoning of the Court would seem, however, to apply with equal force to the right of the United States to tax a franchise granted by a state acting within the scope of its sovereign authority. Patent rights and copyrights are special privileges or franchises granted by the sovereign or government, and under the United States Constitution the right to grant patents and copyrights is expressly conferred on Congress. It has been held repeatedly that patent rights and copyrights are not taxable by the states[1]. As said by the New York Court of Appeals in a case involving the power of the state to tax copyrights:[2] To concede a right to tax them would be to concede a power to impede or burden the operation of the laws enacted by Congress to carry into execution a power vested in the National Government by the Constitution. [Footnote 1: _People ex rel. Edison, &c., Co., v. Assessors_, 156 N.Y., 417; _People ex rel. v. Roberts_, 159 N.Y., 70; _In Re Sheffield_, 64 Fed. Rep., 833; _Commonwealth v. Westinghouse, &c., Co._, 151 Pa., 265.] [Footnote 2: 159 N.Y., p. 75.] Apparently the same rule would be applicable were the granting of patent rights, like the granting of ordinary corporate franchises, a prerogative reserved under our system of government to the states instead of being expressly conferred on the United States. By parity of reasoning, the Federal Government in that case would have no power to tax them.