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The article presents the text of the case McCulloch v. Maryland, presented before the U.S. Supreme Court in February of 1819, regarding the right of Maryland to tax banks. It is admitted by the parties in the case that the Congress of the United States passed an act to incorporate the subscribers to the Bank of the United States, that the State of Maryland then passed an act intended to impose a tax on all banks, and that the President, Directors and Company of the Bank of the United States opened a branch in Maryland where it performed operations customary for banks to do, without authority from the State of Maryland to do so as defined in Maryland's act. The case concerns the validity of Maryland's law to tax banks, when the U.S. act to incorporate the Bank of the United States grants banks the right to establish in any state without being taxed. The judgment concludes that Maryland's act to tax banks is contrary to the U.S. Constitution and therefore void.

The article presents the text of a letter by former American President Thomas Jefferson written to John Holmes on April 22, 1820. The letter discusses the political and social issues surrounding Missouri's admittance as a state. Jefferson addresses the future of the Union in the case of Missouri's admittance as either a slave or free state. The letter focuses on the practice of slavery in Missouri as a key issue in its qualification for statehood. The right of the Congress to intervene in state politics is discussed. Jefferson's letter predicts negative consequences for U.S. politics if Missouri's statehood were approved.