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Where does the government get its power? The answer, of course, is from the Constitution.

But if you search the text, you won't

find anything about the IRS or the Commerce Department or the Federal Reserve. So on what basis

do these government agencies exist? The answer is found in the 1819 Supreme Court case of

McCullough v. Maryland, the most important Supreme Court decision

nobody knows anything about. To understand it, we need to review a little history. After the

Revolutionary War, America's finances were a mess. In 1790, the first Treasury Secretary,

Alexander Hamilton, advocated for creating a national bank to help stabilize

the economy and restore the nation's shuddered credit. Opponents of the bank, most notably

Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, argued that the Constitution didn't include any reference

to such an institution. To create one was, therefore, unconstitutional.

Over Jefferson and Madison's objections, and with President George Washington's blessing,

Congress passed the bill establishing the First Bank of the United States.

Nevertheless, to mollify the bank's critics, Congress attached a sunset provision.

After 20 years, the bank's charter would

be subject to renewal. When that renewal date arrived in 1811, who should be president but

James Madison? True to his long-held convictions, he lobbied Congress to let the bank's charter expire.

But by 1816, Madison reversed himself. The dire state of

the nation's finances during the war of 1812 turned him into a Hamiltonian. The second bank of the

United States rose from the ashes of the first. Madison may have changed his mind, but many

...