PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION. 479 



will have the pleasure, no doubt, of paying more than face value 

 for the water now so freely allowed to issue." 



On this subject the late Chief-Justice Taney expressed his 

 views as follows, in a case that came up before the United States 

 Supreme Court in 1853 : " The powers of sovereignty confided to 

 the legislative body of a State are undoubtedly a trust committed 

 to them to be executed to the best of their judgment for the pub- 

 lic good ; and no one Legislature can by its own act disarm its 

 successors of any of its powers or rights of sovereignty confided 

 by the people to the legislative body, unless they are authorized 

 to do so by the Constitution under which they are elected. They 

 can not, therefore, by contract, deprive a future Legislature of the 

 power of imposing any tax it may deem necessary for the public 

 service, or of exercising any other act of sovereignty confided to 

 the legislative body, unless the power to make such contract is 

 conferred upon them by the Constitution of the State. And in 

 every controversy on this subject the question must depend on 

 the Constitution of the State, and the extent of the power thereby 

 conferred on the legislative body." 



The subject again came up before the United States Supreme 

 Court in 1869, 1871, and 1872, when the question at each time was 

 treated as res adjudicata (definitely settled). In the first of these 

 instances Justice Miller thus expressed his views : " We do not 

 believe that any legislative body, sitting under a State Constitu- 

 tion of the usual character, has a right to sell, to give, or bar- 

 gain away forever the taxing power of the State. This is a power 

 which, in modern political societies, is absolutely necessary to the 

 continued existence of every such society. While under such 

 forms of government the ancient chiefs or heads of the Govern- 

 ment might carry it on by revenues owned by them personally 

 and by the exaction of personal service from their subjects, no 

 civilized Government has ever existed that did not rely upon 

 taxation in some form for the continuance of that existence. To 

 hold, then, that any one of the annual Legislatures can, by con- 

 tract, deprive the State forever of the power of taxation is to hold 

 that they can destroy the Government they are appointed to 

 serve, and that their action in that regard is strictly lawful. The 

 result of such a principle, under the growing tendency to special 

 and partial legislation, would be to exempt the rich from taxa- 

 tion and cast all the burden of the support of government on 

 those who are too poor or too honest to purchase such immunity." 



Like dissenting views have also found expression in various 

 State courts. Chief-Justice Beasley, of New Jersey, for example, 

 in commenting on the proposition that a charter of incorporation 

 is a contract, says : " The entire contract on the part of a State, 

 implied in such cases, is the supposed legislative agreement not 



