156 POP ULAR SCIENCE MONTHL Y. 



gates to tlie convention by which it was formed, wrote thus in 

 The Federalist : 



" The power of taxation is the most important of the authori- 

 ties proposed to be conferred on the Union." 



The necessity of conferring adequate power in this particular 

 upon the new Government which it was proposed to create was 

 admitted by all ; and yet there was no power which the people were 

 more determined to guard, so that it could never be arbitrarily or 

 unjustly exercised. And if it had not been supposed that the pro-. 

 visions of the new Constitution furnished ample security against 

 any such action, not one of the States would have assented to its 

 ratification. 



The preamble of the Constitution asserts, almost in the first 

 instance, that the object of its formation was to "establish jus- 

 tice," an obvious correlative of which is that there must be equal- 

 ity, and no discrimination in taxation as respects the same persons 

 or things. In its first article (second section) it next provided 

 that "representatives (in Congress) and direct taxes shall be 

 apportioned among the several States according to their respec- 

 tive numbers, excluding Indians not taxed." The explanation of 

 this provision, which now seems singular, is undoubtedly to be 

 found in the assumption of the framers of the Constitution that 

 taxation in the future, as it had been in the past, would be mainly 

 direct in its assessment and incidence; and that wealth was so 

 equitably distributed in the colonies (as it was at that time), and, 

 as Roger Sherman, of Connecticut, expressed it, "the number of 

 people alone " was " the best rate of measuring wealth." And on 

 such supposition the absolute requirement of a strict apportion- 

 ment of taxation according to population, with an inherent pen- 

 alty of loss in congressional representation as the result of evasion, 

 was undoubtedly regarded as a safeguard against unjust or dis- 

 criminating taxation. 



Next, in section 8, article 1, after empowering Congress " to 

 lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises," to pay the 

 debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of 

 the United States, was added another provision, the like of which 

 does not find an exact counterpart in any political constitution or 

 statute of which there is historical record namely, that "all 

 duties, imposts, and excises shall be uniform throughout the United 

 States." This provision is one of the first importance. It would 

 seem that there could be no doubt that the framers of the Consti- 

 tution, having specially in view the fact that, under the Articles 

 of Confederation, the several States endeavored to tax everything 

 belonging to every other State that came within their territorial 

 jurisdiction, and that there was no authority on the part of the 

 then General Government to prevent such action, did not mean 



