Developing a Political Cartoon Based on the Decision
The decision in McCulloch v. Maryland established precedent with regard to
the implied powers of the Constitution, but it also established precedent with
regard to which level of government, the national or state, was supreme when
their laws conflicted.
Below is a segment of the decision in McCulloch v. Maryland that deals with
the question of national supremacy. Read through the excerpt carefully,
taking note of words, images, or ideas that might lend themselves to the
development of a political cartoon that captures the idea of national
supremacy. Then, on a separate sheet of paper, sketch such a cartoon. If you
would like to see how political cartoons can be created from a Supreme Court
decision, review the examples for Brown v. Board of Education.
Excerpt from McCulloch v. Maryland:
. . . This great principle is, that the constitution and the laws made
in pursuance thereof are supreme; that they control the constitution
and laws of the respective states, and cannot be controlled by
them. From this . . . other propositions are deduced as corollaries. . . .
. . . That the power to tax involves the power to destroy. . . .
If the states may tax one instrument, employed by the government
in the execution of its powers, they may tax any and every other
instrument. They may tax the mail; they may tax the mint; they may
tax patent-rights; they may tax the papers of the custom-house;
they may tax judicial process; they may tax all the means employed
by the government, to an excess which would defeat all the ends of
government. This was not intended by the American people. They
did not design to make their government dependent on the states.
. . . The result is a conviction that the states have no power, by
taxation or otherwise, to retard, impede, burden, or in any manner
control, the operations of the constitutional laws enacted by
congress to carry into execution the powers vested in the general
government. This is, we think, the unavoidable consequence of that
supremacy which the constitution has declared. We are
unanimously of opinion, that the law passed by the legislature of
Maryland, imposing a tax on the Bank of the United States, is
unconstitutional and void.
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