Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol II).djvu/496

 488 From this, which may be almost termed an axiom, other propositions are deduced, as corollaries, on the truth or error of which, and on their application to this case, the cause has been supposed to depend. These are, 1st. that a power to create implies a power to preserve. 2nd. That a power to destroy, if wielded by a different hand, is hostile to, and incompatible with the powers to create and to preserve. 3d. That where this repugnancy exists, that authority, which is supreme, must control, not yield to that over, which it is supreme. These propositions, as abstract truths, would, perhaps, never be controverted. Their application to this case, however, has been denied; and, both in maintaining the affirmative and the negative, a splendor of eloquence, and strength of argument, seldom, if ever, surpassed, have been displayed.

§ 1033. The power of congress to create, and of course to continue, the bank, was the subject of the preceding part of this opinion ; and is no longer to be considered as questionable. That the power of taxing it by the states may be exercised so, as to destroy it, is too obvious to be denied. But taxation is said to be an absolute power, which acknowledges no other limits, than those expressly prescribed in the constitution; and like sovereign power of every other description, is trusted to the discretion of those, who use it. But the very terms of this argument admit, that the sovereignty of the state in the article of taxation itself, is subordinate to, and may be controlled by, the constitution of the United States. How far it has been controlled by that instrument, must be a question of construction. In making this construction, no principle, not declared, can be admissible, which would defeat the legitimate operations of a supreme government. It is of the very essence of