This government is acknowledged by all to be one of enumerated powers.
The principle, that it can exercise only the powers granted to it, would seem too
apparent to have required to be enforced by all those arguments which it enlightened friends, while it was depending before the people, found it necessary to urge. That principle is now universally admitted.
But the question respecting the extent of the powers actually granted, is perpetually arising, and will probably continue to arise, as long as our system shall exist.”
~ John Marshall (1755-1835), the fourth Chief Justice of the U.S.
Supreme Court, from the famous case of Mculloch vs. Maryland, (1819)