or not, even
if it be carried on by the Government of the United States itself,
separately or in partnership, falls within the scope of the taxing power
of the State. Nothing comes more fully within it than banks and the
business of banking, by whomsoever instituted and carried on. Over this
whole subject-matter it is just as absolute, unlimited, and
uncontrollable as if the Constitution had never been adopted, because in
the formation of that instrument it was reserved without qualification.

The principle is conceded that the States can not rightfully tax the
operations of the General Government. They can not tax the money of the
Government deposited in the State banks, nor the agency of those banks
in remitting it; but will any man maintain that their mere selection to
perform this public service for the General Government would exempt the
State banks and their ordinary business from State taxation? Had the
United States, instead of establishing a bank at Philadelphia, employed
a private banker to keep and transmit their funds, would it have
deprived Pennsylvania of the right to tax his bank and his usual banking
operations? It will not be pretended. Upon what principle, then, are the
banking establishments of the Bank of the United States and their usual
banking operations to be exempted from taxation? It is not their public
agency or the deposits of the Government which the States claim a right
to tax, but their banks and their banking powers, instituted and
exercised within State jurisdiction for their private emolument--those
powers and privileges for which they pay a bonus, and which the States
tax in their own banks. The exercise of these powers within a State, no
matter by whom or under what authority, whether by private citizens in
their original right, by corporate bodies created by the States, by
foreigners or the agents of foreign governments located within their
limits, forms a legitimate object of State taxation. From this and like
sources, from the persons, property, and business that are found
residing, located, or carried on under their jurisdiction, must the
States, since the surrender of their right to raise a revenue from
imports and exports, draw all the money necessary for the support of
their governments and the maintenance of their independence. There is no
more appropriate subject of taxation than banks, banking, and bank
stocks, and none to which the States ought more pertinaciously to cling.