The power to tax involves the power to destroy,” wrote Chief Justice John Marshall, McCulloch v. Maryland, 1819.

The thirteen original States were a band of brothers, who suffered, fought, bled, and triumphed together; they might, perhaps, have safely confided each his separate interest to the general will; but if ever the day should come, when representatives from beyond the Rocky Mountains shall sit in this capitol; if ever a numerous and inland delegation shall wield the exclusive power of making regulations for our foreign commerce, without community of interest or knowledge of our local circumstances, the Union will not stand; it cannot stand; it cannot be the ordinance of God or nature, that it should stand. It has been said by very high authority, that the power of Congress to regulate commerce, ‘sweeps away the whole subject matter.’ If so, it makes a wreck of State legislation, leaving only a few standing ruins, that mark the extent of the desolation. – Gibbons v. Ogden, 1824

Chief Justice John Marshall was born this day in 1755. He was not only a brilliant jurist, but also fought in a War for Independence. McCulloch v. Maryland is one of his much quoted cases; particularly in the area of the Tenth Amendment.

His decision in the case of Gibbons v. Ogden was so maligned by subsequent Supreme Courts (Mainly during the Franklin Delano Roosevelt era) that the actual decision in the case has been lost.

Chief Justice Marshall is quoted by the so-called left when it serves their “decades of precedence” on gun control. They do not refer to this case when it comes to the matter of the bureaucracies they have created. In this case Chief Justice Story ruled bureaucracies, and particularly “private” agencies such as the Federal Reserve, unconstitutional. In Gibbons he wrote:

…for the power which is exclusively delegated to Congress, can only be exercised by Congress itself, and cannot be sub-delegated by it.

Article I, Section 1 states:

All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.

Only CONGRESS has the power to make law or to effect anything that can be construed as law. They cannot delegate that authority to a bureaucracy.

Article I, Section 8, Clauses 2 and 5 give CONGRESS the power to:

To borrow Money on the credit of the United States;
AND
To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;

Therefore that cannot be turned over to any other authority.

For a brief introduction to this Chief Justice, see American Minute with Bill Federer