issued by a branch of the Bank of the United States was
void. In Gibbons _v._ Ogden, the Court held that certain statutes of New
York granting an exclusive right to use steam navigation on the waters
of the State were null and void insofar as they applied to vessels
licensed by the United States to engage in coastwise trade. Said the
Chief Justice: "In argument, however, it has been contended, that if a
law passed by a State, in the exercise of its acknowledged sovereignty,
comes into conflict with a law passed by Congress in pursuance of the
Constitution, they affect the subject, and each other, like equal
opposing powers. But the framers of our Constitution foresaw this state
of things, and provided for it, by declaring the supremacy not only of
itself, but of the laws made in pursuance of it. The nullity of an act,
inconsistent with the Constitution, is produced by the declaration, that
the Constitution is the supreme law. The appropriate application of that
part of the clause which confers the same supremacy on laws and
treaties, is to such acts of the State legislatures as do not transcend
their powers, but though enacted in the execution of acknowledged State
powers, interfere with, or are contrary to the laws of Congress, made in
pursuance of the Constitution, or some treaty made under the authority
of the United States. In every such case, the act of Congress, or the
treaty, is supreme; and the law of the State, though enacted in the
exercise of powers not controverted, must yield to it."[5]

SUPREMACY CLAUSE VERSUS TENTH AMENDMENT

The logic of the supremacy clause would seem to require that the powers
of Congress be determined by the fair reading of the express and implied
grants contained in the Constitution itself, without reference to the
powers of the States. For a century after Marshall's death, however, the
Court proceeded on the theory that the Tenth Amendment had the effect of
withdrawing various matters of internal police from the reach of power
expressly committed to Congress. This point of view was originally put
forward in New York _v._ Miln,[6] which was first argued, but not
decided, before Marshall's death. The Miln Case involved a New York
statute which required the captains of vessels entering New York Harbor
with aliens aboard to make a report in writing to the Mayor of the City,
giving certain prescribed information. It might have been distinguished
from Gibbons _v._ Ogden on the ground th