| Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations. 1989. | | | |
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| | | NUMBER: | 1798 |
| AUTHOR: | Daniel Webster (1782–1852) |
| QUOTATION: | The power to tax is the power to destroy. |
| ATTRIBUTION: | This quotation comes from the words of DANIEL WEBSTER and those of JOHN MARSHALL in the Supreme Court case, McCulloch v. Maryland.
Webster, in arguing the case, said: “An unlimited power to tax involves, necessarily, a power to destroy,” 17 U.S. 327 (1819).
In his decision, Chief Justice Marshall said: “That the power of taxing it [the bank] by the States may be exercised so as to destroy it, is too obvious to be denied” (p. 427), and “That the power to tax involves the power to destroy … [is] not to be denied” (p. 431). |
| SUBJECTS: | Taxation |
| BIOGRAPHY: | Columbia Encyclopedia | | |
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