[810] "Marshall's opinion in M'Culloch vs. Maryland, is perhaps the most celebrated Judicial utterance in the annals of the English speaking world." (Great American Lawyers: Lewis, ii, 363.)
[811] As the biographer of Washington, Marshall had carefully read both Hamilton's and Jefferson's Cabinet opinions on the constitutionality of a National bank. Compare Hamilton's argument (vol. ii, 72-74, of this work) with Marshall's opinion in M'Culloch vs. Maryland.
[812] 4 Wheaton, 400.
[813] Ib. (Italics the author's.)
[814] 4 Wheaton, 400-02.
[815] "In discussing this question, the counsel for the state of Maryland have deemed it of some importance, in the construction of the constitution, to consider that instrument not as emanating from the people, but as the act of sovereign and independent states. The powers of the general government, it has been said, are delegated by the states, who alone are truly sovereign; and must be exercised in subordination to the states, who alone possess supreme dominion.
"It would be difficult to sustain this proposition. The convention which framed the constitution was indeed elected by the state legislatures. But the instrument, when it came from their hands, was a mere proposal, without obligation, or pretensions to it. It was reported to the then existing Congress of the United States, with a request that it might 'be submitted to a convention of delegates, chosen in each state, by the people thereof, under the recommendation of its legislature, for their assent and ratification.' This mode of proceeding was adopted; and by the convention, by Congress, and by the state legislatures, the instrument was submitted to the people.
"They acted upon it in the only manner in which they can act safely, effectively, and wisely, on such a subject, by assembling in convention. It is true, they assembled in their several states—and where else should they have assembled? No political dreamer was ever wild enough to think of breaking down the lines which separate the states, and of compounding the American people into one common mass. Of consequence, when they act, they act in their states. But the measures they adopt do not, on that account, cease to be the measures of the people themselves, or become the measures of the state governments. From these conventions the constitution derives its whole authority." (4 Wheaton, 402-03.)
[816] 4 Wheaton, 403-04.
[817] Ib. 405.