1To George Washington from Thomas Jefferson, 15 February 1791 (Washington Papers)
The bill for establishing a National Bank undertakes, among other things 1. to form the subscribers into a Corporation. 2. to enable them, in their corporate capacities to receive grants of land; and so far is against the laws of Mortmain. though the constitution controuls the laws of Mortmain so far as to permit Congress itself to hold lands for certain purposes, yet not so far as to permit...
2Opinion on the Constitutionality of the Bill for Establishing a National Bank, 15 February 1791 (Jefferson Papers)
The bill for establishing a National Bank undertakes, among other things I consider the foundation of the Constitution as laid on this ground that ‘all powers not delegated to the U.S. by the Constitution, not prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states or to the people’ [XIIth. Amendmt.]. To take a single step beyond the boundaries thus specially drawn around the powers of...