; another, in 1811, decided against it.
One Congress, in 1815, decided against a bank; another, in 1816, decided
in its favor. Prior to the present Congress, therefore, the precedents
drawn from that source were equal. If we resort to the States, the
expressions of legislative, judicial, and executive opinions against the
bank have been probably to those in its favor as 4 to 1. There is
nothing in precedent, therefore, which, if its authority were admitted,
ought to weigh in favor of the act before me.

If the opinion of the Supreme Court covered the whole ground of this
act, it ought not to control the coordinate authorities of this
Government. The Congress, the Executive, and the Court must each for
itself be guided by its own opinion of the Constitution. Each public
officer who takes an oath to support the Constitution swears that he
will support it as he understands it, and not as it is understood by
others. It is as much the duty of the House of Representatives, of the
Senate, and of the President to decide upon the constitutionality of any
bill or resolution which may be presented to them for passage or
approval as it is of the supreme judges when it may be brought before
them for judicial decision. The opinion of the judges has no more
authority over Congress than the opinion of Congress has over the
judges, and on that point the President is independent of both. The
authority of the Supreme Court must not, therefore, be permitted to
control the Congress or the Executive when acting in their legislative
capacities, but to have only such influence as the force of their
reasoning may deserve.

But in the case relied upon the Supreme Court have not decided that all
the features of this corporation are compatible with the Constitution.
It is true that the court have said that the law incorporating the bank
is a constitutional exercise of power by Congress; but taking into view
the whole opinion of the court and the reasoning by which they have come
to that conclusion, I understand them to have decided that inasmuch as a
bank is an appropriate means for carrying into effect the enumerated
powers of the General Government, therefore the law incorporating it is
in accordance with that provision of the Constitution which declares
that Congress shall have power "to make all laws which shall be
necessary and proper for carrying those powers into execution." Having
satisfied themselves that the word "_necessary_" in the Co