Federal instrumentalities

It was laid down by Mr. Chief Justice Marshall, speaking for this court in M'Culloch v. Maryland, that the state could not constitutionally impose taxation upon the operations of a local branch of the United States Bank, because the bank was an agency of the Federal government, and the states had no power, by taxation or otherwise, to hamper the execution by that government of the powers conferred upon it by the people. The supremacy of the Federal Constitution and the laws made in pursuance thereof, and the entire independence of the general government from any control by the respective states, were the fundamental grounds of the decision.