The Maryland legislature claimed that the president and other officers of the U.S. Bank had no authority from Maryland to establish a branch in Baltimore. The Constitution and the laws of the national government are supreme. Any attempts by a state to regulate the affairs of the national government are prohibited. The general government is one of enumerated powers. While there is no specific enumerated power authorizing Congress to establish a bank, there also is no phrase in the Constitution which excludes implied powers.
Taxation is a power concurrently exercised by the states and the general government.
By implication, this restraint on the state's taxing power also extends to all general government activities. The states and all the people are represented in Congress. When the general government levies taxes against a state's chartered institutions, it simply is taxing its constituents. During the course of paving some roads in Baltimore, the city diverted some streams from their natural course into the water in front of the plaintiff's wharf. After several heavy rains so much mud and sand from the streams was deposited into the harbor that the area around the wharf was to shallow for ships to use.