158 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



may also legitimately take such property when the interest of the 

 public requires it, through what is called the law or right of 

 eminent domain. The distinction between the power of taxa- 

 tion and the power of eminent domain is, however, clear and well 

 defined. An appropriation of property under the right of emi- 

 nent domain is a forced sale which its owner is compelled to make 

 for the public good, and for which a pecuniary consideration 

 equal to the estimated full value of what is taken is due from the 

 State. And the exaction can not be considered as a tax " unless 

 similar contributions are made by the public itself, or be exacted 

 rather by the public will, from such constituent members of the 

 same community as own the same kind of property." On the 

 other hand, no pecuniary consideration is paid when money is 

 demanded under the power of taxation, the benefits which the 

 taxpayer is assumed to receive being indirect. 



An Important Imperfection or Omission in the Federal 

 Constitution. Any discussion of the sphere of taxation in the 

 United States would be incomplete that failed to recognize a 

 feature, in the way of imperfection or serious omission, in the 

 Federal Constitution, that hitherto has not attracted the attention 

 it deserves. All powers inherent in the Constitution of the United 

 States were derived from the States, and granted by them in their 

 acts of ratification ; and " the powers not delegated to the United 

 States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are 

 reserved to the States respectively or to the people." Ariicle X, 

 Constitutional Amendments. 



As has been already pointed out, the convention that framed 

 the Constitution was especially solicitous and careful to guard 

 and limit the power of taxation on the part of the new Govern- 

 ment which it was proposed to create, so that it could never be 

 arbitrarily or unjustly exercised. They anticipated in action the 

 aphorism of John Stuart Mill, that " men do not need political 

 rights in order that they may govern, but in order that they may 

 not be misgoverned " ; for, as was truly said by Guizot, " a con- 

 stitution is only a device for turning ordinary mortals into toler- 

 able monarchs." At the same time, the convention practically 

 omitted to impose any limit or restriction on the exercise of the 

 power of appropriating private property on the part of the States ; 

 or, as Chancellor Kent expressed it in his Commentaries on the 

 Constitution, they left "to a State the command of all its re- 

 sources and the unimpaired power of taxing the people and prop- 

 erty of the State." On this point the only direct provisions of 

 the Constitution are that neither the Federal nor State govern- 

 ments shall take private property for public uses i. e., by taxa- 

 tion or right of eminent domain without due compensation ; and 

 that no State, without the consent of Congress, shall lay any im- 



