David Josiah Brewer

“ The main purpose, therefore, of Congress in fixing limits to state taxation on investments in the shares of national banks, was to render it impossible for the state, in levying such a tax, to create and foster an unequal and unfriendly competition by favoring institutions or individuals carrying on a similar business and operations and investments of a like character. ”

“ It is not to be assumed that the state is acting in bad faith; that it has so legislated that upon the face of the statutes a uniform rate of taxation upon all moneyed capital is provided, while at the same time it has designedly placed the grants of some corporate franchises in such form as to permit the use of moneyed capital in certain ways with peculiar and less stringent rates of taxation. Certainly there is nothing in this case to indicate any want of good faith on the part of the state of New York. ”

“ The fact that in a given instance, by reason of an exercise of a discretion as to the particular kind of securities purchased, a trust company may have a real or imaginary advantage over investors in the shares of a national bank is not a sufficient foundation for declaring an assessment invalid. It is essential, if the law of the state is to be declared invalid under the limitations expressed in the United States statute, that the enactment of the legislature shall evidence a disposition to evade or override the spirit of the limiting statute ”

“ It is to be presumed that if trust or other companies are exercising powers not conferred by law the state will take the proper steps to keep them within their statutory limits, and a neglect for a limited time to do so cannot be considered as an assent by the state to such an improper assumption of power. ”

“ If the state refused to allow its trust companies to invest in United States securities there might be a far greater cause for grievance. Trust companies are not organized primarily for banking purposes ”

“ In order to come within the scope of that doctrine there should be in the language a clear recognition of a corporate entity or corporate power actually existing or claimed to exist. A grant of corporate life or corporate power is not made by implication, and the same rule obtains in respect to the matter of recognition. ”