.

That the power to tax involves the power to destroy; that the power to destroy may defeat and render useless the power to create; that there is a plain repugnance, in conferring on one government a power to control the constitutional measures of another, which other, with respect to those very measures, is declared to be supreme over that which exerts the control, are propositions not to be denied...

If we apply the principle for which the state of Maryland contends, to the constitution generally, we shall find it capable of changing totally the character of that instrument. We shall find it capable of arresting all the measures of the government, and of prostrating it at the foot of the states. The American people have declared their constitution, and the laws made in pursuance thereof, to be supreme; but this principle would transfer the supremacy, in fact, to the states... This was not intended by the American people. This did not design to make their government dependent on the states...

The court has bestowed on this subject its most deliberate consideration. The result is a conviction that the states have no power, by taxation or otherwise, to retard, impede, burden, or in any manner control the operations of the constitutional laws enacted by Congress to carry into execution the powers vested in the general government. This is, we think, the unavoidable consequence of that supremacy which the constitution has declared.

We are unanimously of opinion that the law passed by the legislature of Maryland, imposing a tax on the Bank of the United States, is unconstitutional and void.

This opinion does not deprive the states of any resources which they originally possessed. It does not extend to a tax paid by the real property of the bank, in common with the other real property within the state, nor to a tax imposed on the interest which the citizens of Maryland may hold in this institution, in common with other property of the same description throughout the state. But this is a tax on the operations of the bank, and is, consequently, a tax on the operation of an instrument employed by the government of the Union to carry its powers into execution. Such a tax must be unconstitutional.

106. THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE

In the following group of documents the first is the Tallmadge Amendment to the Missouri Enabling Act.

Annals of Congress, 15 Congress, 2 session, p. 1170.

The second is the Thomas Amendment of February 3, 1820, the essential of the Missouri Compromise as finally adopted. Annals of Congress, 16 Congress, I session, pp. 363.

The third is the act enabling the people of Missouri to form a state constitution as finally passed, March 6, 1820.

Statutes at Large of the United States, Vol. 3, pp. 545-548.

The fourth is the part of the Constitution of Missouri that barred free negroes from entering the state.

Poore, Federal and State Constitutions, vol. 2, pp. 1107-1108.

The fifth is the so-called Second Missouri Compromise, intended to nullify the obnoxious provision in the Missouri Constitution. Statutes at Large of the United States, vol. 3, p. 645.

THE TALLMADGE AMENDMENT, FEBRUARY 15, 1819 THE House having again resolved itself into a Committee of the Whole, (MR. SMITH of Maryland in the chair,) on the bill to authorize the people of the Missouri Territory to form a constitution and State government, and for the admission of the same into the Union

The question being on the proposition of MR. TALLMADGE to amend the bill by adding to it the following proviso:

"And provided, That the further introduction of slavery or involuntary servitude be prohibited, except for the punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have been fully convicted; and that all children born within the said State, after the admission thereof into the Union, shall be free at the age of twenty-five years: "

THE THOMAS AMENDMENT

THURSDAY, February 3, [1820]

MR. THOMAS, of Illinois, submitted the following additional section, as an amendment to the Missouri bill, (which, it was proposed, by a report of the Judiciary Committee, to incorporate with the Maine bill,) viz:

"And be it further enacted, That in all that tract of country ceded by France to the United States, under the name of Louisiana, which lies north of thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes north latitude, excepting only such part thereof, as is included within the limits of the State contemplated by this act, there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude otherwise than in the punishment of crimes whereof

the party shall have been duly convicted: Provided always, That any person escaping into the same, from whom labor or service is lawfully claimed in any State or Territory of the United States, such fugitive may be lawfully reclaimed, and conveyed to the person claiming his or her labor or service as aforesaid."

THE MISSOURI ENABLING ACT

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That the inhabitants of that portion of the Missouri territory included within the boundaries hereinafter designated, be, and they are hereby, authorized to form for themselves a constitution and state government, and to assume such name as they shall deem proper; and the said state, when formed, shall be admitted into the Union, upon an equal footing with the original states, in all respects whatsoever...

SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That all free white male citizens of the United States, who shall have arrived at the age of twentyone years, and have resided in said territory three months previous to the day of election, and all other persons qualified to vote for representatives to the general assembly of the said territory, shall be qualified to be elected, and they are hereby qualified and authorized to vote, and choose representatives to form a convention...

SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That the members of the convention thus duly elected... are hereby authorized to meet at the seat of government of said territory on the second Monday of the month of June next... and which convention, when so met, shall first determine by a majority of the whole number elected, whether it be, or be not, expedient at that time to form a constitution and state government for the people within the said territory ... and if it be deemed expedient, the convention... is, authorized to form a constitution and state government... Provided, That the same, whenever formed, shall be republican, and not repugnant to the constitution of the United States; and that the legislature of said state shall never interfere with the primary disposal of the soil by the United States, nor with any regulations Congress may find necessary for securing the title in such soil to the bona fide purchasers; and that no tax shall be imposed on lands the property of the United States; and in no case shall non-resident proprietors be taxed higher than residents...

SEC. 7. And be it further enacted, That in case a constitution and state government shall be formed for the people of the said territory of Missouri, the said convention or representatives, as soon thereafter

as may be, shall cause a true and a tested copy of such constitution, or frame of state government, as shall be formed or provided, to be transmitted to Congress.

SEC. 8. And be it further enacted, That in all territory ceded by France to the United States, under the name of Louisiana, which lies north of thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes north latitude, not included within the limits of the state, contemplated by this act, slavery and involuntary servitude, otherwise than in the punishment of crimes, whereof the parties shall have been duly convicted, shall be, and is hereby, forever prohibited: Provided always, That any person escaping into the same, from which labour or service is lawfully claimed, in any state or territory of the United States, such fugitive may be lawfully reclaimed and conveyed to the person claiming his or her labour or service as aforesaid.

APPROVED, March 6, 1820.

THE CONSTITUTION OF MISSOURI, 1820

ARTICLE III.

OF THE LEGISLATIVE POWER.

...SEC. 26. The general assembly shall not have power to pass laws

1. For the emancipation of slaves without the consent of their owners; or without paying them, before such emancipation, a full equivalent for such slaves so emancipated; and,

2. To prevent bona-fide immigrants to this State, or actual settlers therein, from bringing from any of the United States, or from any of their Territories, such persons as may there be deemed to be slaves, so long as any persons of the same description are allowed to be held as slaves by the laws of this State.

They shall have power to pass laws

1. To prohibit the introduction into this State of any slaves who may have commited any high crime in any other State or Territory; 2. To prohibit the introduction of any slave for the purpose of speculation, or as an article of trade or merchandise;

3. To prohibit the introduction of any slave, or the offspring of any slave, who heretofore may have been, or who hereafter may be, imported from any foreign country into the United States, or any Territory thereof, in contravention of any existing statute of the United States; and,

4. To permit the owners of slaves to emancipate them, saving the right of creditors, where the person so emancipating will give security that the slave so emancipated shall not become a public charge.

It shall be their duty, as soon as may be, to pass such laws as may be

1. To prevent free negroes end mulattoes from coming to and settling in this State, under any pretext whatsoever; and,

2. To oblige the owners of slaves to treat them with humanity, and to abstain from all injuries to them extending to life or limb.

SEC. 27. In prosecutions for crimes, slaves shall not be deprived of an impartial trial by jury, and a slave convicted of a capital offence shall suffer the same degree of punishment, and no other, that would be inflicted on a white person for a like offence; and courts of justice, before whom slaves shall be tried, shall assign them counsel for their defence.

SEC. 28. Any person who shall maliciously deprive of life or dismember a slave, shall suffer such punishment as would be inflicted for the like offence if it were committed on a free white person...

THE ADMISSION OF MISSOURI

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That Missouri shall be admitted into this union on an equal footing with the original states, in all respects whatever, upon the fundamental condition, that the fourth clause of the twenty-sixth section of the third article of the constitution submitted on the part of said state to Congress, shall never be construed to authorize the passage of any law, and that no law shall be passed in conformity thereto, by which any citizen, of either of the states in this Union, shall be excluded from the enjoyment of any of the privileges and immunities to which such citizen is entitled under the Constitution of the United States: Provided, That the legislature of the said state, by a solemn public act, shall declare the assent of the said state to the said fundamental condition, and shall transmit to the President of the United States, on or before the fourth Monday in November next, an authentic copy of the said act; upon the receipt. whereof, the President, by proclamation, shall announce the fact; whereupon, and without any further proceeding on the part of Congress, the admission of the said state into this Union shall be considered as complete.

APPROVED, March 2, 1821.