Opinion of the Court. that question, without any aid from the statute of the United States under which these bonds were issued, or the exemption clause contained in the bonds, we conceive it to be entirely clear that the tax in question is unconstitutional, because impairing and burdening the borrowing power of the United States." Or, as stated elsewhere in the brief: "The States have no power to impose any tax or other burden which would have the effect to prevent or hinder the government of the United States from borrowing such amounts of money as it may require for its purposes, on terms as beneficial and favorable to itself, in all respects, as it could do if no such tax were imposed by the State." It will be observed that these propositions concede that the tax law of the State of New York in question does not expressly, or by necessary implication, propose to tax Federal securities. It is only when and if, in applying that law to the estates of decedents, such estates are found to consist wholly or partly of United States bonds, that the reasoning of the plaintiff in error, assailing the validity of the statute, can have any application. And the contention is that individuals, in forming or creating their estates, will or may be deterred from offering terms, in the purchasing of such bonds, as favorable as they otherwise might do, if they are bound to know that such portion of their estates as consists of such bonds is to be included, equally with other property, in the assessment of an inheritance tax. Before addressing ourselves directly to the discussion of these propositions we shall briefly review the decisions in whose light they must be determined. And, first, what is the voice of the state courts? A detailed examination of the state decisions is unnecessary, because it is admitted, in the brief of the plaintiff in error that in many, if not in most, of the States of the Union inheritance or succession tax laws, similar to the New York statute in question, are and have been long in operation, and that the question of their validity, in cases like the present, has always heretofore been determined by the state courts against the United States. We cannot, however, accede to the suggestion in the brief that Opinion of the Court. the state decisions are entitled to but little consideration, for the reason that "they are the determinations of a distinct sovereignty, adjudicating upon the rights of the nation, and naturally jealous of their own." Undoubtedly, in a case like the present, the national law is paramount, and its final exposition is for this court. Still, for reasons too obvious to require statement, the decisions of the state courts, particularly if they are uniform and concur in their reasoning, are worthy of respectful consideration, even if the question be, at last, a Federal one. Without attempting a rehearsal of the state decisions, we may profitably examine the reasons and conclusions of several of the leading state courts. A statute of Massachusetts of 1862 provided that every institution for savings, incorporated under the laws of that State, should pay a tax on account of its depositors, on the average amount of its deposits. The Provident Institution of Savings, a corporation having no property except its deposits and the property in which they were invested, and authorized by the general statute of Massachusetts to receive money on deposit and to invest its deposits in securities of the United States, had on deposit on the 1st day of May, 1865, $8,047,652-of which $1,327,000 stood invested in public funds of the United States exempt by law of the United States from taxation under state authority. The company declined to pay that portion of the tax on its property invested in United States bonds. On suit brought by the Commonwealth to recover the same, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, regarding the tax as one on franchise, and not on property, held the tax to be lawful. Commonwealth v. Provident Institution, 12 Allen, 312. By a subsequent statute of 1864, c. 208, corporations having capital stock divided into shares were required to pay a tax of a certain percentage upon "the excess of the market value" of all such stock over the value of its real estate and machinery. The Hamilton Manufacturing Company refused to pay the tax upon that portion of its property which was invested in United States securities, because, by the act of Congress authorizing their issue, they were exempt from taxation by state authority. Opinion of the Court. It was held by the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts that the tax was to be regarded as a tax on the franchise and privileges of the corporation, and was lawful so far as related to Federal securities. Commonwealth v. Hamilton Company, 12 Allen, 298, 300. The legislature of Connecticut in 1863 enacted that the savings banks in the State should annually pay to the treasurer of the State a sum equal to three fourths of one per cent on the total amount of deposits. The "Society for Savings," a corporation of Connecticut, refused to pay the tax upon that portion of its deposits which was invested in United States bonds, declared by act of Congress to be exempt from taxation by state authority. On a suit brought by Coite, treasurer of the State, to recover the tax thus withheld, the Supreme Court of Connecticut decided that the tax in question was not a tax on property, but on the corporation as such, and rendered judgment accordingly for the plaintiff. Coite v. Savings Bank, 32 Conn. 173. In Pennsylvania it has been repeatedly held that the collateral inheritance law of that State, imposing a tax upon the total amount of the estates of decedents, is valid, although the estate may consist in whole or in part of United States bonds; and this upon the principle that what is called a collateral inheritance tax is a bonus, exacted from the collateral kindred and others, as the conditions on which they may be admitted to take the estate left by a deceased relative or testator; that the estate does not belong to them, except as a right to it is conferred by the State; that the right of the owner to transfer it to another after death, or of kindred to succeed, is the result of municipal regulation, and must, consequently, be enjoyed subject to such conditions as the State sees fit to impose. Strode v. Commonwealth, 52 Penn. St. 181; Clymer v. Commonwealth, 52 Penn. St. 181, 186. In Virginia the highest court of the State has construed a similar statute as imposing the tax, not upon the property, but upon the privilege of acquiring it by will or under the intestate laws. Eyre v. Jacob, 14 Grat. 422; Miller v. Commonwealth, 27 Grat. 110. Opinion of the Court. The Supreme Court of Illinois has held valid a statute of that State, entitled "An act to tax gifts, legacies and inheritances in certain cases, and to provide for the collection of the same." Rev. Stat. Ill. 1895, c. 120. The constitutionality of the act was denied, because of the alleged want of reasonableness in its classification of those subject to the tax and the want of equality in the amounts imposed. But the Supreme Court held that an inheritance tax is a tax not upon property, but on the succession, and that the right to take property by devise or descent is the creature of the law, a privilege, and that the authority which confers the privilege may impose conditions upon it. Kochersperger v. Drake, 167 Illinois, 122. By an act of the legislature of New York, Laws of 1881, c. 361, p. 481, it was enacted that "every corporation, joint stock company or association whatever, now or hereafter incorporated or organized under any law of this State, shall be subject to and pay a tax, as a tax upon its corporate franchise or business, into the treasury of the State, annually, to be computed as follows: If the dividends made or declared by such corporation, joint stock company or association during any year ending with the first day of November amount to more than six per centum upon the par value of its capital stock, then the tax to be at the rate of one quarter mill upon the capital stock for each one per centum of dividend so made or declared," etc. The Home Insurance Company, a corporation of the State of New York, having a capital stock of $3,000,000, declared a dividend of ten per cent for the year 1881. During the year 1881 the company had part of its capital invested in United States bonds, exempt from state taxation. The amount so invested changed from $3,300,000 to $1,940,000 in such bonds during the year 1881. The company, in tendering payment of its tax, claimed that so much of the laws of New York as required a tax to be paid upon the capital stock of the company, without deducting from the amount so to be paid that part invested in bonds of the United States, was unconstitutional and void. In an action brought to recover such unpaid portion of the tax, the Supreme Court of New York, at general term, ad Opinion of the Court. judged that the company was liable to pay such tax; and this judgment was affirmed by the Court of Appeals. The view of those courts was that, the tax being upon the franchise of the company, it mattered not how its capital stock or property may be invested, whether in United States securities or otherwise. N. Y. & Home Insurance Co. v. New York, 92 N. Y. 328. In Monroe Savings Bank v. Rochester, 37 N. Y. 365, it was said: "It is true that where a tax is laid upon the property of an individual or a corporation, so much of their property as is vested in United States bonds is to be treated, for the purposes of assessment, as if it did not exist, but this rule can have no application to an assessment upon a franchise, where a reference to property is made only to ascertain the value of the thing assessed. It is, however, argued with great ingenuity and skill that, inasmuch as the plaintiffs, among other powers given them, have the right to invest their moneys in United States bonds, their franchises and privileges cannot be taxed by the State. The power thus to invest their money, it is contended, is a franchise for lending to the United States, and therefore cannot be taxed, because such taxation would trench on the power of the United States to borrow. This is stretching the argument too far. It cannot be pretended that the State would violate any obligation resulting from the power of the United States to borrow money, if the law conferring the power upon the plaintiff to invest their money in United States stocks and bonds were repealed. The State is under no obligation, express or implied, to legislate to enhance the credit of the general government, and should it adopt a system of legislation which indirectly produces such a result, its power of repeal cannot be doubted. The position, that a franchise granted by the bounty of the State is not taxable, because coupled with that franchise is the privilege of loaning money to the general government, is not more untenable than to argue that, because such a franchise enhances the credit of the United States, therefore the legislature could not repeal the law granting the franchise without violating its constitutional obligation. Suppose the legislature had limited the amount in which the plaintiff |