the judicial power of the government in a case for the disposal
of which this judicial power has been properly invoked.

The decision of the court in McCulloch _v._
Maryland[Footnote: 4 Wheaton's Reports, 316. See Willoughby,
"The American Constitutional System," 44, 123.] unquestionably
settled forever, as between the cashier of the bank and the State
of Maryland, that the bank was a lawful institution. That in
Osborn _v._ The Bank of the United States[Footnote: 9
Wheaton's Reports, 738.] reaffirmed it as between the bank and
the Treasurer of the State of Ohio. It would be intolerable if
such judgments were not in effect equally conclusive for the
determination of all controversies between all men and all States
growing out of the creation of such a corporation. Practically,
then, the opinion of the executive department to the contrary
could only be of importance in such a case as Jackson had in
hand; that is, in its influencing executive action in approving
or disapproving some proposed measure of legislation. It could
not disturb the past.

The authority of a judicial precedent is weakened if it comes
from a divided court, and especially if a dissenting opinion is
filed in behalf of the minority. A silent dissent indicates that
the judge from whom it proceeds is not so impressed by the fact,
or the importance to the public, of what he deems the error of
the majority that he thinks it worth while to express the reasons
which lead him to differ from them.

No departure from precedent in any American court has ever
awakened so much feeling as that by the Supreme Court of the