[conimbricenses]

I'd also have to conclude that the "rupture" in thought that solidified the centralizing tendency of the federal government was, in its initial form, a judicial event - McCulloch v. Maryland in 1819.

Marshall truly pushed the court into new territory there with far-reaching implications that would later justify a constitutional theory embracing centralization. Nor can the theory he offered in that case be said to represent an originalist interpretation of the Constitution, as he - quite literally - stared down the very author of the Supremacy Clause from the 1787 convention and told him that his original meaning meant nothing. So if you seek the event that set the ball in motion for the income tax and everything else after it, trace it to that. Because it was the judicial green light that emboldened subsequent congresses to assume ever-greater powers at the federal level.

[Bigun]

Nor can the theory he offered in that case be said to represent an originalist interpretation of the Constitution, as he - quite literally - stared down the very author of the Supremacy Clause from the 1787 convention and told him that his original meaning meant nothing.

I believe you are entirely correct here! That opened the door wide and the stateists continue to walk through it to this very day!