me other
power might be substituted for it, and supply its place. That can never
be necessary, in the sense in which the message understands that term,
which may be dispensed with; and it cannot be said that any power may
not be dispensed with, if there be some other which might be substituted
for it, and which would accomplish the same end. Therefore, no bank
could ever be constitutional, because none could be established which
should not contain some provisions which might have been omitted, and
their place supplied by others.

Mr. President, I have understood the true and well-established doctrine
to be, that, after it has been decided that it is competent for Congress
to establish a bank, then it follows that it may create such a bank as
it judges, in its discretion, to be best, and invest it with all such
power as it may deem fit and suitable; with this limitation, always,
that all is to be done in the _bona fide_ execution of the power to
create a bank. If the granted powers are appropriate to the professed
end, so that the granting of them cannot be regarded as usurpation of
authority by Congress, or an evasion of constitutional restrictions,
under color of establishing a bank, then the charter is constitutional,
whether these powers be thought indispensable by others or not, or
whether even Congress itself deemed them absolutely indispensable, or
only thought them fit and suitable, or whether they are more or less
appropriate to their end. It is enough that they are appropriate; it is
enough that they are suited to produce the effects designed; and no
comparison is to be instituted, in order to try their constitutionality,
between them and others which may be suggested. A case analogous to the
present is found in the constitutional power of Congress over the mail.
The Constitution says no more than that "Congress shall have power to
establish post-offices and post-roads"; and, in the general clause, "all
powers necessary and proper" to give effect to this. In the execution of
this power, Congress has protected the mail, by providing that robbery
of it shall be punished with death. Is this infliction of capital
punishment constitutional? Certainly it is not, unless it be both
"proper and necessary." The President may not think it necessary or
proper; the law, then, according to the system of reasoning enforced by
the message, is of no binding force, and the President may disobey it,
and refuse to see it executed.